NYC Sparkworks

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In two weeks we will be shooting our audition video for our place around the man. What are we going to do for our audition video? Good question. All that running around in circles will actually pay off I promise. We have two rehearsals until the shoot in which we will get newer arrivals up to speed and learn the actual material for the piece. If you are worried about being up to this don’t be. If you can walk and hoop, or do the weave at the same time then you will be fine. If you can’t… well you have 2 weeks to learn. In past years in the conclave I have emphasized technique above everything. This year we are going to add an new element to our conclave show, looking fabulous. And that’s what our next rehearsal is all about.

Special costume workshop and rehearsal Sunday June 10 5-9PM
Call  me for address
(347)612-6731
Make up rehearsal in Washington Square park 9–10:30PM

This Sunday we will be making masks. Safeties this meeting is absolutely mandatory for you. You guys are also our propmasters and we need your help making these things. For those of you who haven’t made it to rehearsals yet, come and make a mask and you will instantly feel all caught up on practice.

Our theme is forest fire and from our previous rehearsals some parts have become clear.

Poi: We did a lot of direction changes in a manner that looked like flocking birds. So its bird masks for you.
Hoops: You guys aren’t as prone to darting off in random directions so its trees for you. You aren’t literally trees though. Think nymphs fauns and other     forest spirits with a leaves made of leather. (I have a hard time not thinking about that actually…)
Staff: There are only three of us so its kind of open. You can be and animal or an ogre. I’m a deer!
Firewhip: Ogre  What else would you be?

What if you want to do more than one thing during the show? Make more masks.

I have wet and stick fiberglass(like plaster but high tech), gesso, armature wire and multicolor leather for a dozen masks or more. I am a little short on brushes and paint if you have these materials at home. Feel free to bring other materials you might want to incorporate. You can be as crazy or conservative as you want. These masks are meant to be worn on the back of your head during the show so they don’t block your vision. They don’t have to be detailed or literal, a big red oval is still pretty awesome. For inspiration check out these galleries of masks including one I put up on our site. If there is a mask you really like send me the picture or link and I will include it.

http://www.nycsparkworks.org/?page_id=15

Other galleries.
http://www.masksoftheworld.com
http://www.nohmask21.com

As always I will post this to www.sparkworks.com (minus the address so call if you need directions)

Thanks everybody, and set something on fire won’t you?

Ben

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I don’t have any fire pics so here are some inpirational animal masks
We are into month 2 of our rehearsals and it is time to start bringing form to ideas, whatever the hell that means.
I’ve been gone, but it looks like Monkeyboy has really come through with the rooftop space. Although we do need to set some stuff, I would hate to detract from the community he is building, so let’s make the Grand space rooftop our regular Sunday practice spot. Wednesday we will go back to Sugar Park (Grand St Ferry Park).

Also, sunset is getting later so let’s start at 7:30.

————-Some notes for the month:

Attendance:
Some of y’all I haven’t seen yet! At this point that’s still OK because we have a great core of people who are now pretty familiar with the movement vocabulary we are going to be using for the conclave show. You will be up to speed in no time.
It also is not too late to get the discount ticket available to performers. If you can make 2 of the 3 rehearsals this month and the video shoot you are still eligible. (There is also an extra credit assignment that I will mention in the next section.)

Safeties:
Performers, If you haven’t thought about who your safety is going to be, now would be the time. Next week will be our first safety meeting. Because a safety is also often a prop-master, we will be working on costuming. I have leather and other fire resistant materials that we will be making some masks and other costuming elements out of.

(If you are a performer, but can’t attend a rehearsal for some reason you can earn your discount ticket by working on costumes)

Video Shoot:
June 17th we will be shooting an audition video for Crimson. This is an all hands on deck type of thing. If you absolutely can not make it to the shoot tell me now. If there are a number of you who can’t I will reschedule.

Thanks everybody, and I will see you at practice.

Ben

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This weekend we will be rehearsing in the band shell of the historic Corlear’s Hook Park.(Technically its the East River Park Oops!) Maps to the bandshell are available here and a map with subway stops here. The band shell is easy to find, just take the walking bridge over the FDR and you will walk right into it. I can’t find anything on there being a concert there, but if that is the case we can just meet in the nearest baseball diamond. Is it too soon for fireflies?
As usual we will be there from 7-9PM and fire will be contingent upon NYC’s finest. This will be the last official practice for the month of May for no reason other than I am leaving town.

I have no picture of people doing fire in that particular park, so here’s that photo of Lucky that Jung took. Nice symmetry right? If you have a picture you want posted, just send me the link. William had a great one of me, but I already had my turn.

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As promised, Here is the location of Sunday AND WEDNESDAY rehearsal. We will be at Grand Ferry Park in Williamsburg. And we already have conflicting information. This rehearsal is from 7-9PM. That skirts dusk. Later in the summer I will push back rehearsals to 8PM to stay around sunset.

http://gis.nyc.gov/parks/lc/NYCParkMapIt.do

Above is me at Grand Ferry Park circa 2002. Lovely spot!

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For ease of rehearsal scheduling I present to you our entire summer agenda. I will be out practicing my poi staff and sword on these dates. I will announce the locations the week before, but the time will always be 8-10PM on Sundays and 7-9 on Wednesdays.

The dates!

Sunday May 6th
Wednesday May 9th
Sunday May 13th

Sunday June 3rd
Sunday June 10th
Wednesday June 13th Washington Square Lawn 6-8PM Costume making 8-10PM

Mandatory Shooting Rehearsal
Sunday June 17th

Sunday July 8th
Wednesday July 11th
Sunday July 15th

Sunday August 5th
Wednesday August 8th
Sunday August 12th

Thursday on playa: Sunset Happy Hour at Camp ImageNode.

———–VERY IMPORTANT——-
In order to get a discount ticket you are required to attend at least one of the rehearsals each month and the video rehearsal.

If you can’t start attending until after the shoot, you can still spin in the conclave if you attend any 4 rehearsals.

If this is still too much you are still welcome to come and practice when you can, but you are way too busy to commit to the conclave and you should really consider a better time management strategy.
———————————————————————————————–

Obviously it would be great if you could attend all of the rehearsals. With this many rehearsals we run the risk of spreading ourselves thin. To keep the numbers and the energy up I am going to keep rehearsals open to everybody. If you have friends who spin but aren’t in the conclave they are more than welcome to come. (Read the article)

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Central Park’s Bethesda Terrace Is easy to find, but still secluded. Just enter the park at 72nd street and head straight down the main road until you go over a large bridge. Walk down the stairs towards the turtle pond and there you are. I have spun fire there a few times in the past and not had any problems. Let’s give it a try this Sunday. Sunset is at 7:30 so 8 will be a good time to meet.

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NYC Sparkworks!
Forest Fire!
First Rehearsal Sunday April 8th 8PM at Bethesda Terrece in Central Park

1. NYCSparkworks!
I felt like we should have a new name this year, so we have a new name this year! Behold NYC Sparkworks! It’s kind of a fusion of past groups and projects that many of you have participated in.

2. Forest Fire!
In honor of this year’s Burning Man theme “Green Man” our performance will be embrace mother nature as only we can. This year’s performance will be themed Forest Fire! You are invited to perform as a woodland creature, forest spirit, firefighter, lumberjack, ranger or camper in any stage of being burned alive!
I have access to Materials for the Arts for costuming supplies and I already have a good amount of leather for you to make your flame resistant costume. I will announce upcoming costume sessions.

3. Rehearsals!
People seem to like Sunday evenings for rehearsals. Please respond to me if these aren’t good for you and we will try to find better alternate days. I will go location scouting this weekend. But I would like to have a rehearsal the following Sunday April 8th. Let’s say 8PM In Bethesda Terrace Central Park. I will try to alternate between Manhattan and Williamsburg for future rehearsals.

Rehearsals are going to run a bit differently this year. Let’s be honest. We are performing because it is fun and maybe because we get a discounted ticket. Rehearsals and the show we create should reflect our intentions. Consequently, rather than specific choreographed movements this show is going to consist of several improvisational games based on a technique called Viewpoints. I’ll explain what this is before every rehearsal, but if you would like to get all intellectual you can read about it for yourself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewpoints

OK, this might seem like it’s getting too intellectual for a bunch of crazed firespinners. You will just have to trust me on this one. Viewpoints are easy to learn, fun to do, and best of all, anybody can play. For those of you who started skimming after the second line ANYBODY CAN ATTEND FIRE CONCLAVE REHEARSALS. It doesn’t matter who we practice with, so bring whoever you want. It will only make you a better performer.

That’s probably more than anybody wants to absorb for one email so I’ll stop here.

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That’s it! That will be the theme for the Sparkworks 2007 conclave performance. Everyone participating is invited to dress like forest creatures, firefighters, lumberjacks, arsonist, or scorched campers and partake in the bedlam that is a forest conflagration!

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This WP site is your resource for announcements on rehearsal schedules, pictures, links and all things fire conclave for New York. I’ll try to post everything as soon as I hear about it, including Crimson’s instructions. Feel free to post any questions or comments under annoucements as they come.

And if anybody knows any web stuff, like how to do CSS and PHP, and would like to make this page a little more pyroesque please contact me I am going to have to buy a book I think.

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