Clay & Paper Theatre - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Clay & Paper Theatre is a Community Arts

Community art

Community Art could be loosely defined as a way of creating art in which professional artists collaborate more or less intensively with people who don't normally actively engage in the arts. Community arts, also sometimes known as "dialogical art", "community-engaged" or "community-based art,"...

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

Company in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

that produces narrative theatre using large-scale puppets, masks, stilts

Stilts

Stilts are poles, posts or pillars used to allow a person or structure to stand at a distance above the ground. Walking stilts are poles equipped with steps for the feet to stand on, or straps to attach them to the legs, for the purpose of walking while elevated above a normal height...

, visual imagery, music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, and poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

. A fundamental component of Clay & Paper Theatre’s mandate is social inclusion.

Origins

Clay & Paper Theatre was founded in 1994 by its Artistic Director

Artistic director

An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...

, David Anderson. David helped to establish the organization in community

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

-centered Dufferin Grove Park

Dufferin Grove Park

Dufferin Grove Park is a park in the Dufferin Grove neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The park is located on the east side of Dufferin Street, south of Bloor Street West. It is located a block south of the Dufferin subway station and across the street from Dufferin Mall...

, Toronto, where they have a small workshop and storage facility.

Festivals

Clay & Paper Theatre delivers an annual multidisciplinary summer festival

Festival

A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....

called Day of Delight. Coinciding with summer solstice

Solstice

A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun's apparent position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes...

, Day of Delight is a celebration of love, courtship and desire.

Plays

Each summer, Clay & Paper Theatre produces a new Canadian play which runs for up to 5 weeks in Dufferin Grove Park. These plays are built, rehearsed and performed in full public view and admission to all performances is on a pay what you can

Pay what you can

Pay what you can is a non-profit or for-profit business model which does not depend on set prices for its goods, but instead asks customers to pay what they feel the product or service is worth to them. It is often used as a promotional tactic, but can also be the regular method of doing business...

basis.

Community Parades

Occurring in late October on the Saturday before Halloween

Halloween

Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

, Night of Dread is an annual community event in which giant puppets and images of fears are paraded through the streets and then burned in a bonfire at Dufferin Grove Park with live music, dancing and fire spinning. Attracting thousands of revelers, 2010 marks the eleventh annual Night of Dread celebration.

Projects

Puppets Without Barriers (2009) Project Partners: Centre for Learning Technologies at Ryerson University

Ryerson University

Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...

and Picasso Pro. Funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage.

An accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...

initiative to reduce barriers to audiences who are blind or deaf. Basic adaptations have been made to scripts and programs as well as additional interpretation including ASL
ASL
ASL is a common initialism for American Sign Language, and may also refer to:*Above sea level, altitude measurement*Adobe Source Libraries, a set of open source software libraries by Adobe...

, audio description
Audio description
Audio description refers to an additional narration track for blind and visually impaired consumers of visual media...

, tactile tours, Braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...

and Large-print. http://www.ryerson.ca/news/news/General_Public/20090826_CLTPlay.html http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=170559

Cyclops: Cycling Oriented Puppet Squad (2009-current) Project Partners: Toronto Cyclists Union

Toronto Cyclists Union

Started in 2008, the Toronto Cyclists Union is Toronto's largest cycling advocacy organization with over 500 members as of 2008. -History:...

, Bike Pirates, Sweet Pete’s. Funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation

Ontario Trillium Foundation

The Ontario Trillium Foundation , is an agency of the government of Ontario and one of Canada’s leading grantmaking foundations. It was created in 1982...

Clay & Paper Theatre’s 3-year bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

-based theatre project. This 4-person mobile performance squad animates and energizes environmental
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....

and cycling events across Toronto, bringing theatre and cycling enthusiasm to the unsuspecting public, drawing attention to urban environmental issues and promoting active living. http://www.clayandpapertheatre.org/index.php/main-content/cyclops.html

Building Local Stories (1998-current) Project Partners: Friends of Dufferin Grove Park.

Productions

The Pedaler's Wager (2010)

The Circus of Dark & Light (2010)

Night of Dread (2010)

Day of Delight (2010)

Between Sea & Sky (2009)

Bicycle Revolution (2009)

Leap Year Pudding (2009)

Puppets On Ice (2009)

Song of the Innocents (2008)

Horse Feathers (2008) http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=163990 http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/villager/article/52380?thePub=villager

Night Of Dread (2008)

Day of Delight (2008)

Night of Dread (2007)

We Need Help! (2007)

Day of Delight (2007)

Puppets on Ice (2007)

Night of Dread (2006)

Camões, the One-Eyed Poet of Portugal (2006)

Night of Dread (2005)

The Space Between (2005)

Lilith (2004)

Day of Delight (2004)

Puppets on Ice (2004)

Night of Dread (2003)

Day of Delight (2003)

Puppets on Ice (2003)

The Sylliad (2003)

GOLD in Dufferin Grove Park (2002)

Night of Dread (2002)

Night of Dread (2001)

Night of Dread (2000)

The Lost City of Wagadu (2000)

Lilith Unfair (1999)

The Ballad of Garrison Creek (1998)

Democracy (1998)

The Epic of Mael Duin (1998)

The Resurrection of Fornax (1997)

The Return of Green Man (1995 to present)

Gilgamesh (1994 to 1996)

Awards and honors

2009 Davenport Community Builders Award (David Anderson)

2008 Short listed for William Kilbourn Award for the Celebration of Toronto's Cultural Life (David Anderson)

2007 Chalmers Arts Fellowship, Ontario Arts Council (David Anderson)http://www.arts.on.ca/Page2037.aspx

External links

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