Dramaturgy Fucker:Nicola Hunter @ Buzzcut

Double Thrills is a monthly platform from BUZZCUT supporting live art and experimental performance. 

Running from October 2017 - April 2018 we'll be showing radical performance practices from the UK and the rest of the world, alongside new live work in development from some of Scotland's most exciting makers, all in a super warm and friendly environment with drinks, dancing and welcoming vibes.



MOTHERFUCKER
by Nicola Hunter

MOTHERFUCKER is a multi-layered response to my experiences as a single parent.

I have remained an outsider with my queer birthing body, fluxing and crashing through different lands of otherness over my time as a parent. MOTHERFUCKER is a conversation on gender and the home with a look at those patriarchal hands that feed us, while all too easily pushing their silencing fingers in our mouths.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

MOTHERFUCKER is my response to the way I've been treated as a single mother across many platforms, and how my experiences are very different to the father of my children who cut contact with our children, oh the fucking privilege. 

This piece talks not only of my experiences, but of the common and seemingly 'just one of those things' bullshit responses many single parents are fed. The fact that I have to find a few hundred pounds every month before I could even go to work and how that time is limited, how I am unable to go back into education to develop my skills, how I've not had a full nights sleep in years and yet the father of our children walks away and refuses to  financially support me bringing up our children. It's utter fuckery.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Performance can be a tool used as a catalyst for dialogue and dialogue has the potential to create change, all of which is dependent on the intention of the facilitator of that space.

How did you become interested in making performance?

My background is in fine arts I have no formal training in performance/theatre, I came into performance through a live art route, beginning as a fine artist influenced somewhere between the YBA's and painters like Elisabetta Sirani and Artemisia Gentileschi. 

MOTHERFUCKER is the next in a trilogy of works after LOST BODIES, which sees me push my own personal creative boundaries by creating a theatre piece that straddles live art. Making art work keeps my soul fed.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

Due to my circumstances, threaded with the nature of my past works, I have never really rehearsed a piece of work. Lost Bodies was developed on tour, it was rooted in shamanic ritual and processing the work on site added to the success of the show, all of the emotion was real which I found kept the integrity and heart of the piece.  

I aim to develop MOTHERFUCKER with new collaborators, mentors and partners over the coming year, BUZZCUT will be my first sharing of the work. As a single Mother I am not able, like many artists, to live off my practice, so juggling creative processing, work and home becomes part of the build up of energy to inform the show.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

My practice will always straddle different processing methods to get the right fit and I hope my work will continue to evolve and challenge me. LOST BODIES was my first tour and I learnt a huge amount during the year we travelled with it across the UK. 

MOTHERFUCKER already feels unapologetically angry, whether I can tame myself before hand or the fire gets taller by the 7th February. I guess you'll find out...

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

A pissed off mother at the end of my fucking tether.

This new piece is an exploration of the binary, sex, death, life and the relationship western society has with the mother and the birthing body.

Buzzcut Thoughts (1)

The wonderful Ultron is My Elvis blog made me aware of a comic on-line archive.

I start taking the piss with the 'public domain' status right now.

To see the Buzzcut booklet, go here.

Buzzcut - thinking about Live Art

The Glasgow School X: The Three Festivals

Again, these were tentative notes...

The three theatre festivals represent different strands of performance. The youngest, Buzzcut, is entering its third year, having been instituted as a response to the absence of New Territories, a festival that programmed high quality experimental performance. Founded in 2012 by Rosana Cade and Nick Anderson, Buzzcut has a mission statement that emphasises the creation of new spaces for performance and bring new audiences to live art. For 2014, it runs between 23^rd and 27^th April in The Pierce Institute (Govan).

In past years, it featured a mixture of local and national artists working in similar territory to The National Review of Live Art, which was held in Glasgow until 2010. Unlike the NRLA, it does not pay its artists, and has an open application process. Although the majority of performances are live art solos, it has included musicians (Glasgow experimentalists In Posterface in 2013), video game competitions (Thom Scullion) and readings from poets.

In its first year, Buzzcut was advertised in The Arches' season as part of Behaviour: although this was never a formal connection – it was independently curated – it emphasises the programmes' shared aesthetic. In 2014, Behaviour runs from March until May: in previous years, it has picked up on successes from the Edinburgh Fringe, supported new performance from emerging artists through its Platform 18 fund, offered international names – Ann Liv Young has been a regular visitor - and a season of 'auteurs' from the National Theatre of Scotland.

Behaviour, previously known as The Arches Theatre Festival, is curated by Jackie Wylie with the intention 'to create a platform for the best Scottish work and put that beside companies with international status.'

Mayfesto was founded in 2010 by the artistic director of the Tron, Andy Arnold, to 'connect the city's strong political traditions with its love of theatre. Now in its fourth year, it runs from 6 -31 May in 2014 and has a theme of 'post-colonial theatre,' and presents work in association with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which is also based in Glasgow.

Previous years have seen new plays from Scottish authors, including David Greig and Cora Bissett: Andy Arnold has directed several productions and while there are two available spaces in the building (a main auditorium and a studio space), the emphasis has been on scripted theatre.

Each festival has its peculiarities, most notably in venue choice. Buzzcut has moved to the Pierce Institute in Govan, an area not known for theatre and recognised as needing regeneration. The Arches, a converted series of tunnels beneath a railway station in the city centre, is a multi-arts venue, featuring gigs and clubs alongside theatre. The Tron, meanwhile, is a traditional theatre space in the city centre.

The Problem of the Question

The framing of the question – whether 'Glaswegian festivals' share not just a geographical location but also an aesthetic sensibility – is deliberately problematic. Discussing cultural homogeneity relies on the assumption that a culture can be broadly defined: in Scottish Drama and the Popular Tradition, Elizabeth MacLennan claims that 'Scotland is distinguished by its socialist, egalitarian tradition, its Labour history, its cultural cohesion' (ed. Stevenson and Wallace, 1996: p180), a generalisation neither supported by evidence nor easy to prove. As Wolfgang Iser (ed. Counsell and Wolf, 2001: p180) reminds, the impossibility of determining objective truth ensures that all analysis becomes an analysis of perceptions. The interrogation of the festivals' takes on Glaswegian identity will be based on the assumption that there is no final definition, but a series of interpretations that inform the programming, performances and reception of the festivals.

Storm struggles to tell the truth in criticism...

Buzzcut Thoughts (1): The Thing and The Human Torch

Buzz Cut Up

//BUZZCUT// began its life on 15th December 2011, in a cold flat in Glasgow. Since then it has grown and evolved. 

In her description of performance art, RoseLee Goldberg reflects this definition: 'permissive, open-ended medium with endless variables, executed by artists impatient with the limitations of more established art forms.' (cited in Carlson XXX pXX). 

This is the tradition that fuels an event like Buzzcut. Sure, there are performers like FK Alexander, who could be said to be part of a more musical tradition (noise and industrial), but the emphasis on messing about with form fed into that tradition, too.
//BUZZCUT// is a collaboration between two artists in Glasgow dedicated to creating exciting, supportive environments for artists and audiences to experiment with cutting edge live performance.
This description matches elegantly with the atmosphere generated by the British and American radical theatre groups who appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

But Glasgow, here and now, has an atmosphere, too. Poking through the line-up, it's intriguing to note how many artists come from the city - and how many want to come up and be part of the action.
Yet the experiments of the 1970s remain crucial for the examination of how devised performance can, through its processes, embody political ambition.

Glasgow-based makers include: Eilidh MacAskill, Paul Michael Henry, Cara Berger, Louise Ahl, Lou Brodie + Tashi Gore, Victoria Bianchi, Laura Bradshaw, Claire Cunningham, Peter McMaster, Steve Slater. And that is just a selection - and I am looking for a connection between their work, hoping I can point to it and say: that's Glasgow.

//BUZZCUT// looks to open up new spaces for performance to happen, to bring new audiences to live art, and to create new opportunities for artists to make and share work.

The influence of the American radical theatre – companies like The Firehouse Theatre, The Living Theatre and the San Francisco Mime Troupe (who went as far as helping Black Panther Eldritch Cleaver escape arrest) – encouraged consideration of how political theatre could engage audiences (The Agitprop Street Player’s The Industrial Relations Act was performed at a demonstration in Hyde Park, echoing the ‘guerrilla theatre’ of Ronnie Davis from the SF Mime Theatre, which included practical skits teaching passers-by ‘how to stuff the parking meter’ (cited Sainer, 1975)).

I am not sure I can yet - although maybe that inspiring live art tradition can help. What does it mean to be political in 2014?
//BUZZCUT// believes in strengthening and broadening communities, in bringing people from different walks of life together in one circle to ask challenging questions.

And in the difficult conversations that frustrated McGrath, there was a genuine attempt to consider how a collaborative creativity could operate.

//BUZZCUT// is about sharing; sharing food, sharing ideas and support, opening up doors and sharing homes.//BUZZCUT// loves festivals. //BUZZCUT// will bring a free five day festival of experimental performance and live art to the centre of Glasgow every March, with a broad range of artists from different places, different practices, and different stages in their career.

Three Festivals Coming Soon

Back when I was a cheeky young pup - as opposed to being a balding cynic - I would stamp my feet at the thought of Edinburgh as 'The Festival City.' Sure, they've got The Fringe, manipulate, the EIF but Glasgow can do it too. Celtic Connections is occupying most of the city this month; last weekend was Sound Thought and there are three festivals between now and June: Buzzcut, Mayfesto and Behaviour

. If they don't cover the gamut of theatrical experience, I'll stop making a fuss about the wonder of the West Coast.

One of my favourite books is Social Sculpture, a survey of the Glasgow Visual Art Scene under the influence of Joseph Beuys. It starts off talking about Beuys's visits (okay, to the East Coast), before examining his idea that art can perform a community function, building an atmosphere that allows creativity to thrive. The music scene is a big part of this and the traditions it mentions - the DIY aesthetic, the overlap between band members and conceptual artists - continue to inspire. Cry Parrot, the Glasgow International, Buzzcut: the connection between these events are not ones of content but aspiration. The desire, both to promote Glasgow as a place where 'art happens' and to bring international art into the city, lends these groups a rare, shared vitality.

Part of this identity keys into my ideas about curation as artistic creation - there are figures behind these names who act as curators - but the vastness of the project means that they take on lives of their own. It's possible to plot routes through Buzzcut and GI that reflect vastly different themes. The question becomes whether these events could happen anywhere else in the world.

That cheeky young pup might have learnt not to make generalisations, but the idea of a Glasgow School, sharing enthusiasms and style, is attractive. Disregarding the branding of the council (which tends to be outward facing, attracting visitors), Glasgow has a distinctive quality, a mixture of political radicalism, post-modern verve and urban hustle. Of course, it has the opposites too, but I am ignoring them. They don't support my optimism about finding an answer...

Curation as Process etc

Today, I am pondering 'curation as an artistic process.' I noticed that Summerhall are advertising for an events coordinator, and wondered how this differed from an artistic director. I guess that the coordinator is a practical, hands-on type role, while the a.d. has a vision... one is a managerial role while the other is all about the leadership.

Recent years have seen the rise of the festival as an 'aesthetic unit': that is, an entire series of events linked and connected by a theme. The Tron's Mayfesto is coming back later this year - it began as a 'political' festival, although that definition has been stretched over time - and Buzzcut, now in its third year, has a clear identity as a place for emerging artists to experiment in the region between 'theatre' and 'performance.'

Manipulate is almost traditional in its emphasis on a festival as a place to explore a single genre - fortunately, the genre (visual theatre) is broad enough to include object manipulation, puppetry, physical theatre and even dance. There tends to be an assumption that manipulate is 'about' puppetry (probably because Puppet Animation Scotland are behind it), but the choices of Simon Hart, artistic director, are bounded only by imagination. It remains as one of the last great Scottish festivals that have an international pull and is determined to include challenging performance - although the Edinburgh International does a fair job (and I don't count the Fringe, since it lacks an overall curation).

Some part of the importance of manipulate comes from the influence it might have on Scottish artists: in Europe and beyond, theatre supports an industry of performers in more experimental practices, and the scale of companies like Editta Braun (Luvos) reveals that Germany, at least, can sustain intriguing work at a high level. While the National Theatre of Scotland is not afraid to play with form and format, and the Citizens is defining itself through radical imaginings of familiar stories, the larger independent companies tend to be in a script-based tradition.

Back in the days when the National Review of Live Art was still running, it was a truism to say that it was important not to pick and choose events, but dive in, almost at random. Manipulate and Buzzcut deserve the same advice - it might be the only way to work out how the curatorial process operates.

Buzzcut and Broken Glass

It is perfectly possibly that my Bad Sunday - caused by sitting on my glasses while reading an introduction to Marx - is the result of a punishment for my cynicism about the Sunday Assembly. Fortunately, they won't believe in supernatural justice, so I can develop a conspiracy theory that the Catholic Church objected to my comparison of the Vatican to the BBC.

My current limited vision, aside from expressing my critical identity in a literal motif that would probably delight fans of Shakespeare, has cut into my review time at Buzzcut. I have been struggling anyway: the variety of work, the sheer volume of artists and the number of performers who are offering either works in progress or are at an early stage of their career slices across a simple approachof star rating individual turns. Besides, the posters are asking how an even can strengthen a community. If this is the intention of the festival, this question can only really be answered after the dust has settled - and from within.

Buzzcut  has never been short in ambition. Last year, it appeared to emerge in response to the absence of New Territories, a festival of experimental theatre that had introduced Glasgow to artists from Michael Clark through to Franko B. Buzzcut was clear that it did not intend to replace NT: the financial support behind the latter had allowed it to important major names from around the globe. Buzzcut is far more focussed on emerging artists - and local creators. But it made a fierce statement of independence, tipping its hat to the DIY ethos so strong in Glasgow, and encouraging artists from different genres, not necessarily associated with the Live Art that defines New Territories. By stressing the ideal of building and maintaining community, it presented a specific vision of what art is.

Fortunately, this year it includes the Black Sun Drum Corp. I'll be able to hear them, even if I can't see.

Both festivals and works in progress are worth further discussion - they are becoming the predominant format of theatre and related arts, lately... as soon as my eyes adjust to the short distance, I think I need to consider how I approach them.

dance at buzzcut

Here's a problem - how does a poor critic address the complexities of the Buzzcut programme? A worthy successor to the first edition, year two's artists number fifty and they are going to take over that area around Mono for a few days at the end of the month... and even the most ardent follower of emerging work would be revealed as a liar if they claimed expertise on all the artists?

I won't even try. I just asked Nick Anderson, one of the curators, whether there was much dance on the bill. And, like co-curator Rosanna Cade, his positive attitude tells me as much about the events as the details.

"Looking at it now," Anderson says, pondering my lazy question. "There's a lot of work which gravitates around some kind of dance inquiry!" He is appropriately careful not to give too much away - or define the artists' work too closely. "There are some pieces which have a shade of dance practice/process, for example Will Dickie, Laura Bradshaw, Louise Ahl and Ultimate Dancer, however these works and artists wouldn't define their work as dance work -  I don't think."

Inadvertently, Anderson has managed, in three artists, to expose part of Buzzcut's nature: Ahl and Bradshaw are both familiar faces in Glasgow performance - Dickie less so. But Anderson notes there are other pieces that have a cheeky bop at their heart.

"Rosana Antoli invites audiences to be dancers in her piece at the Glue Factory. You get headphones and a specially made piece of music," he says. "There's also more about that work but I won't give it all away! But it sounds really great!"

"Katy Dye and Gabriel Spector will invite you to have a dance with death in a few slots over the course of the Glue Factory day as well. Philippa Clark and Lou Brodie also invite us to the Rules of the Tea Dance Party which is part silent disco, part re-telling of gathered dance floor stories through the years!"

It's not enough for Buzzcut to have loads of artists, spread out of the traditional venues - frankly, the plans this year are making site-specific look unambitious. They have to break format boundaries as well.

Stay tuned as I try to keep up with the genre busting. Cheers, Nick.

//BUZZCUT// Festival

It's difficult to imagine that the //BUZZCUT// Festival is only really a year old. Since it emerged last year - in some ways from the wreckage of the New Territories programme, although there is no formal connection between the two festivals - it has turned up at The Glasgow International Fringe, Tramway's Freshfaced and manipulate. Their vision of "two artists making space for more art" has placed them apart from the usual approach to curation, since they offer artists an opportunity to present their work in unusual formats and venues.

After the debut festival at The Old Hairdressers, the first four days will be happening at Mono - better known for music gigs (and the cool record shop off the side of the bar) - before heading up to the more familiar Glue Factory for a final blast. With fifty odd artists rolling into town, including acts from Iceland and Germany, //BUZZCUT// does echo the glory days of The National Review of Live Art. Yet its emphasis on emerging artists connects it to an emerging network of events that support work that might otherwise struggle for exposure.

"Last year it was distinctive because it was an artist-led, no-funding/budget first time festival but that also had a really extensive programme," says co-curator Nick Anderson. "This year what we're really hoping will work will is that we're focusing the programme around community and making the Trongate area, in particular, a really busy area for just under a week."  

There are a few artists who can be recognised from the NRLA - Richard Layzell and Richard DeDomenici (who both do a variation on the humorous lecture demonstration, with added antics and subversion), as well as names that have become familiar from last year's festival - Ultimate Dancer, and Greg Sinclair (post-modern choreography and quick-fire composer respectively). But unlike many festivals, the vague gestures towards building a community and dialogue are replaced by a genuine forum.

"The programme is kicked off every day with a lunch event for artists, volunteers and delegates to be fed, chat to each other," Nick continues. "And each day's lunch will also be hosted by a different artist. Then audiences and everyone can be engaging with work throughout all the afternoon, with the evening showing studio based performances in our disused shop that we're renovating!"

This is undeniably a major shift from even the radical festivals planned by Arika: the focus is as much on the dialogue as the performances. And while some of the artists may be new to Buzzcut, they are familiar in Glasgow: Eilidh MacAskil from Fish and Game, Andy Field from Forest Fringe, Jack Webb and Hunt and Darton, who has their own art cafe at the 2012 Fringe. 

"And of course we're then off to the Glue Factory on the last day," Anderson concludes "Which is a very distinctive day in itself, if last year is anything to go by. Just an amazing space for performance: artists can really be site-specific or responsive in all of its nooks and crannies! Also, it'll be great to bring everyone under the same roof for a big day-long performance-fest!"

27^th-31^st March,

Across multiple venues in Glasgow.

Pay What You Can!

Manipulate (Live Blog on the Bus): Buzzcut

The opening night of manipulate was an appropriately post-modern take on the cabaret format: the audience found themselves in four different spaces, moving from the intimate one-to-one of Five Minutes To Move Me through the longer performances of Sarah Hopfinger, Murray Wason and Harry Wilson, to the finale with Carles Casallachs’ Por Sal Y Samba. The emphasis on physical theatre reflects the influence of curators Buzzcut, who have spent the past year garnering a reputation for taking performance into unfamiliar places, although Por Sal Y Samba has enough funky choreography to count as dance.

Five Minutes To Move Me has become Buzzcut’s signature strand: a series of one-on-one pieces, lasting five minutes, it has turned up at youth days and international visual art festivals alike. Bringing together artists both new (Corrie McKendrick is still studying at the RCS) and familiar (Ian Nulty has graced both Glasgay! and Arches Live!), it challenges the artist to condense an idea into a short, intimate routine.

The longer pieces, meanwhile, mark Buzzcut’s ongoing relationship with emerging artists. Both Hopfinger and Wason are graduates of the Contemporary Performance Practice degree at the RCS, and their work is personal and bears the traces of Live Art’s enthusiasm for community and performance theory. Running towards the hour, they have space to explore their ideas and display their wide range of performance techniques.

Por Sal Y Samba, coming in at around twenty minutes and finishing off the evening comes from a very different tradition. Deconstructing the sensuality of samba, and exposing the violence lurking behind the sway of the hips, it shifts rapidly from entertaining display to a no-holds barred battle of the sexes.

Establishing physical theatre’s place within the visual theatre festival, Buzzcut @Manipulate takes advantage of Summerhall’s multiple venues and, by using old lecture theatres, brings out something of physical theatre’s academic bent. Wason’s Automaton includes a brief history of robotics and Hopfinger’s performance with even year old Carragh McLiven is framed by two white boards that highlight the mutual learning processes that are happening within Age Old.

The loose format of the evening is appropriate to the content: there are plenty of “works in progress” and both Wason and Hopfinger are hinting at ideas, both theatrical and intellectual, rather than pursuing a specific argument.

It is a gentle introduction to the festival, questioning rather than demonstrative, encouraging an intimacy between performers and audience, and refusing to make any grand declarations about performance. Situated within a festival that has its roots in puppetry, Buzzcut@Manipulate recasts physical theatre - in itself a relatively recent genre within a broader tradition.

Transcript of Buzzcut Chat....

On the announcement of their participation in this year's manipulate, I contacted Buzzcut's founders - "two artists making space for other artists" to see how their own vision integrated with that of Puppet Animation Scotland. As we race towards the opening night, a few words from Nick Anderson and Rosana Cade explain how emerging artists can get visual...




What made you decide to hook up with a visual theatre festival?


Following Buzzcut festival last year, we were approached by Simon Hart, who was keen to hear more about what we were up to over here in Glasgow. One of our aims with Buzzcut is to always be bringing Live Art to new audiences, and we saw working with Manipulate as an exciting way to bring great work to a new group of people who may not have come along to Buzzcut in March.


It felt like an appropriate way to be broadening and strengthening the performance community within Scotland. Perhaps Visual Theatre and Live Art mean different things to a lot of people, and we are interested in exploring the parallels and intricacies of these distinctions by placing the work alongside each other in the same programme.


Does manipulate share anything with your own ethos in terms of how they programme?
Manipulate has a core purpose of showcasing an alternative form of work that has less of a platform in Britain, not least Scotland. This is an ethos that we'd find parity with as we both believe in the importance of the work we're passionate about having a supportive home. The work that interests both of us is contemporary and less likely to be seen regularly by audiences, and it's clear we are both inspired by the chance to see this work in Scotland.


When we met up last May to speak about this collaboration, Simon shared our excitement about blurring the barriers that might exist between Glasgow and Edinburgh audiences. Both cities have great audiences and different qualities, so it's exciting to be working with this intention!

Are you going to see anything else in the programme- or what has intrigued you?

We're fairly excited by the film programme. It seems like a rare treat to have such an interesting range of animated films from across the world. Big Man Japan in particular sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun, and we're also looking forward to some of the darker screenings like Consuming Spirits, which was apparently fifteen years in the making! I think we'll be aiming to get a film festival pass and see all the screenings if we're able to.


What is also really exciting about the programme is having the chance to see live performances from all over the world, and to engage with the styles and techniques these companies are experimenting with.

Cheers!

Love Buzzcut x

Manipulate 101: Buzzcut@Manipulate

When Gary Barlow made his ill-advised comments on a certain act being "too cabaret" (and thereby leading to the creation of the only interesting new tune to come out of X-Factor), he wasn't thinking of cabaret in the sense of a variety evening but a more generic fascination with sequins and show-stopping songs.  Buzzcut@manipulate might have an air of cabaret in its diversity of performers but the acts aren't likely to be transferring to a cruise ship anytime soon.

Buzzcut, having had a strong year since their inaugural festival in 2012, brings their signature series of intimate pieces, Five Minutes to Move Me and a couple of shows from artists that they have been working with for a longer period. Murray Wason is having a peek at the robotic future in Automaton while Sarah Hopfinger is looking forward to These Old Age Present Moments.

Both Wason and Hopfinger are associated with the dynamic contemporary practice performance that has made Glasgow a centre for Live Art. Wason appeared in Nic Green's successful Trilogy and makes his own pieces, exploring masculinity and Scottish identity. He also has one of the most disarming smiles in show business. Meanwhile, Hopfinger has shown an interest in environmental change, theatre for building communities and the importance of Bob Dylan songs in the context of naming children.

Despite grappling with serious stuff and coming from a tradition known for its commitment to experimentation, Wason and Hopfinger are lightly humorous and utterly charming.

 The final name on the bill is Carles Casallachs. Por Sal y Samba sits on the uncomfortable line between erotic play and domestic violence and features the use of a soft drink as a weapon in the sex wars.

A value for money evening, this one is at Summerhall - last Fringe's hip venue.


3 February 2012

Will appeal to fans of: Torture Garden (BDSM themes in Por Sal), Live Art, samba dancers, science (experimental theatre, see. Plus robots), intimate theatre, emerging performers, thrill seeking

Still Buzzin'

It was good fun on the Radio Hour last night with  //BUZZCUT//: Nick Anderson and Rosana Cade came on and we chatted for an hour about the history of... well, it's not just an event, more of an organisation. We managed to get ourselves in a nice tangle trying to define Live Art, and both Nick and Rosana were unsure as to whether they were comfortable being defined as producers. Still, they brought along some good tunes and I realised how far //BUZZCUT// has come in the past year.

Although we didn't get into it too much last night, //BUZZCUT// evolved, at least in part, due to the disappearance of New Territories, a rather excellent festival of provocative art that had made the Glasgow Spring joyous for well over a decade. //BUZZCUT// doesn't replace New Territories - it is far more DIY and has an emphasis on emerging artists - but it does fulfill a need in the theatre arts programme. 

At the moment, though, they are making a call-out to artists for the next festival: it runs March 27- 31, and I'll let them explain what they are seeking...

//BUZZCUT// is an artist-led performance festival in Glasgow, which celebrates and supports artists from all stages of their practice.

We are so excited to be returning for our 2nd festival next March! We've been asking ourselves the question: ‘What do we know? What do we still need to learn?’

Between 27th – 31st March, we aim to be programming over 50 pieces of work over 2 venues and having  be a meeting point for all kinds of communities across Glasgow and further.

We are accepting proposals from live artists from across Britain. We’re really keen to hear from as many people as possible and also how your piece responds to the same question we’ve been asking ourselves: ‘What do we know? What do we still need to learn?’

//BUZZCUT// will provide artists with:


· The opportunity to create a new piece of work, show an existing piece of work, or try out a new idea in a supportive environment

· A platform to showcase work to invited producers and programmers from across Britain

· The opportunity to become part of a new performance community

· Free, homemade, hot food each day of the festival from our //BUZZCUT// chef

· Specially created artistic meet and greet events every day

· Full documentation of your work through film and photographs

We would also like to pay for your travel if we’re able to accept your application for the programme. This can’t be confirmed at the moment but we will let you know as soon as we know.




If you are coming to the festival from outside Glasgow, there will also be the opportunity to stay with a Glasgow-based artist with no accommodation costs.

//BUZZCUT// is about people. It’s about art and it’s about sharing.


Love //BUZZCUT// x


You can email us for an application form glasgowbuzzcut@gmail.com

Or you can copy and paste it from our website.

Twitter: @glasgowbuzzcut

Or find us on facebook.
--
Two artists making space for more art

glasgowbuzzcut@gmail.com
07932654960
www.glasgowbuzzcut.wordpress.com
Twitter: @glasgowbuzzcut


//Upcoming events:
//Buzzcut @ Fresh Faced, Tramway, 15th December
//Buzzcut @ Into The New, The Arches, 16th January
//Buzzcut @ Manipulate, Summerhall, 3rd February
//Buzzcut 2013, Glasgow, 27th - 31st March//

Manipulate 2013

For the past six years, the annual manipulate festival has introduced visual theatre to the audiences of the the Traverse Theatre. Existing in the space between puppetry, animation, choreography and physical performance, visual theatre is a vital link between traditional, scripted plays and the more experimental devised work that emerged in the latter half of the twentieth century.

The festival's expansion - this year, it has additional dates at Lochgelly Centre, Fife, Lemon Tree, Aberdeen and Norwich Puppet Theatre - demonstrates that the reach of manipulate is going beyond the expected audiences with a taste for the new. Programmed by Puppet Animation Scotland, manipulate shares the mission of the lamented New Territories festival, gathering challenging, exciting and original performance from around the world, refusing to respect predictable boundaries of genre or content.

manipulate begins in February, and brings together cabaret (Netherlands based Carles Casallachs’ Sal Y Samba at Summerhall), silent theatre (Finland’s TIP Connection offer To The End of Love, a reworking of the Bluebeard myth), live animation (The Paper Cinema, returning to Edinburgh with their 2011 Fringe hit, The Odyssey), puppetry and mask work (After the Wave by Physical Theatre Scotland), interactive technology (Final Space, Ocean Flight and Myth and Infrastructure from Cloud Eye Control).

Festivals have become an increasingly fashionable way to support specific arts genres: by bunching together both internationally acclaimed companies like The Paper Cinema and younger, local performers like Drop Kick or Tortoise in a Nutshell, manipulate serves to put the shows in a wider context. Taken as a whole, it presents the scope of a particular label - in this case visual theatre - without having to  limit it through a strict definition.

Without descending to the cliché of exclaiming that "puppetry isn't just for kids" or emphasising that object manipulation is about more than hands shoved up a decorated glove, manipulate's vision identifies how this ancient form has adapted to the digital age. Films, cross-platform work, paper-engineering, animation: it's a far cry from the stereotype of creepy ventriloquists on Saturday night TV variety. 

Speaking about the festival, Simon Hart, Artistic Director of Puppet Animation Scotland said, “manipulate has grown year on year, in audience, programme and reputation. We’re celebrating our sixth year and the Traverse’s 50^th anniversary with our most ambitious programme yet, presenting international productions in Edinburgh, Fife, Aberdeen and England. Our larger animation programme features great new films from the Czech Republic and the USA and a classic from the Brothers Quay. We’re also showcasing the brilliant work of four up and coming, prize-winning animators from Scotland. We’re delighted as ever, to offer audiences across Scotland and for the second year, in Norwich, the opportunity to experience the best of contemporary exciting visual theatre and animation.”

Estonia’s Nuku Theatre presents A Wild Growling Happiness, manipulate festival’s first work programmed for young people, a story about creating and exploring our own worlds by performers from the Estonian State Puppet & Youth Theatre (5 Feb).

Physical Theatre Scotland presents , a full length show that has developed over the past four years from manipulate’sSnapshots programme. Inspired by images of victims of severe natural disasters, life size puppets, masks and live music explore how world events are reflected in the human body (7 Feb).

Paper-engineering features again in the programme with work from Israel’s Yael Rasooly in Papercut. This one woman show about the frustrated secretary of a big Hollywood producer transforms the vivid language and style of black and white cinema into a low–tech universe of paper cut-outs and object theatre (7 Feb).

Los Angeles-based performance group appear in the UK for the first time at manipulate with three short works, . The company combine interactive media with live performance to examine human adaptation in a technological world (8 Feb).

The Netherland’s Stuffed Puppet Theatre brings Neville Tranter’s combination of wicked, down to earth humour, deadly seriousness and virtuoso puppetry to manipulate with Schiklegruber…Alias Adolf Hitler. Neville Tranter has built a reputation over the past 30 years as a world leader in puppetry, consistently engaging with social and political issues in his work (9 Feb). Summerhall is the setting for Snapshots: Creation & Play Platform Performance, where Scottish artists Drop Kick and Tortoise in a Nutshell present works in progress, and performance critic Gareth Vile hosts a participatory seminar exploring the boundaries of art through conversations (9 Feb).

The performance programme closes with the return of Slick by Vox Motus, which had its world premiere at the Traverse during the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The story of boy permanently attached to his skateboard combines absurd comedy, visual storytelling, puppetry, object theatre and physical performance to create a unique ensemble performance. Kicking off a national tour at manipulate (12-16 Feb).

The film strand of manipulate, curated by Susie Wilson, begins with a feature from The Brothers Quay, The Piano Tuners of Earthquakes(Germany/UK 2005), strongly influenced by Eastern European animation (4 Feb). Alois Nebel (Czech Republic/Germany), Tomas Lunak’s award-winning feature film debut is based on the popular graphic novels trilogy by the Czech artists Jaroslav Rudis and Jaromir 99 (5 Feb). Nearly 15 years in the making and shot frame by frame, Consuming Spirits (USA, 2012) is meticulously constructed experimental animation by Chris Sullivan. Big Man Japan, a deadpan mockumentary satire of reality TV and monster movies by Japanese comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto, concluding manipulate’s feature programme (9 Feb).

The shorts programme presents nine films in 80 minutes, with animation from Hungary, Russia, Estonia, France, USA, Canada, Austria and Luxembourg (6 Feb). Snapshots: Creation and Play – 6.05 showcases four works over four nights from recent graduates from the Edinburgh College of Art’s Animation Department, introduced by leading Scottish animator Iain Gardner (5 – 9 Feb).

Notes to Editors:

PRESS SCREENING: 4 – 6pm, Wednesday 28 November.
Simon Hart, Puppet Animation Scotland and Edinburgh College of Art’s Neil Kempsell will introduce a trailer of features, shorts and the 6.05 programme from the full film strand of manipulate which will be followed by a Q & A and a screening of All the Glistens ,  presented by ECA animation graduate Claire Almond.

Traverse ticket prices:

Performances: £15/£11/£6
Screenings: £6
Festival Film Pass: £20

manipulate dates:

Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
Dates: Saturday 2 February
01224 641122 / www.boxofficeaberdeen.com

Summerhall, Edinburgh
Dates: Sunday 3 – Saturday 9 February
0845 874 3001 / www.summerhall.co.uk

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
Dates: Monday 4 – Saturday 16 February
0131 228 1404 / www.traverse.co.uk

Lochgelly Centre, Fife
Dates: Wednesday 6 – Saturday 9 February
Tickets and booking: 01592 583303 / www.onfife.co.uk

Norwich Puppet Theatre
Dates: Thursday 7 – Saturday 9 February & 9 – 12 March
01603 629921 / www.puppettheatre.co.uk

Listings – Edinburgh Performances:

Sunday 3 February (6.00pm) Summerhall
FESTIVAL CABARET
Buzzcut presents Carles Casallachs (Netherlands)
Por Sal y Samba

Tickets: £11 / £6 from Summehall Box Office (0845 874 3001 / www.summerhall.co.uk)
-------------------------------------------

Monday 4 February (7.30pm) Traverse Theatre
PERFORMANCE

TIP Connection  (Finland), Traverse Theatre
To The End of Love

Tickets: £15.50 / £11.50 / £6

-------------------------------------------
Monday 4 February (9.15pm), Traverse Theatre
SCREENING: FEATURE FILM

The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
DIR: The Brothers Quay (Germany / UK, 2005)Tickets: £6 / £20 Film pass -------------------------------------------
Tuesday 5 February (6.05pm), Traverse Theatre
SCREENING: Edinburgh College of Art Animation Showcase
Snapshots: Creation and Play – 6.05

All that Glistens by Claire Lamond

Free, but ticketed.
-------------------------------------------
Tuesday 5 February (7.30pm), Traverse Theatre
PERFORMANCENuku Theatre (Estonia)
A Wild Growling Happiness

Tickets: £15.50 / £11.50 / £6 (A Big Night Out Event)

-------------------------------------------Tuesday 5 February (9.15pm), Traverse Theatre
SCREENING: FEATURE FILM
Alois NebelDIR: Tomas Lunak (Czech Republic / Germany, 2011)

Tickets: £6 / £20 Film pass -------------------------------------------Wednesday 6 February (6.05pm), Traverse TheatreSCREENING: Edinburgh College of Art Animation Showcase
Snapshots: Creation and Play

Tea Party
by Vitalij Sichinava

Free, but ticketed-------------------------------------------
Wednesday 6 February (7.30pm), Traverse Theatre
PERFORMANCE

The Paper Cinema (England)

The Odyssey

Tickets: £15.50 / £11.50 / £6

-------------------------------------------Wednesday 6 February (9.15pm), Traverse Theatre
SCREENING: SHORTS PROGRAMME

Log Jam: KFJG No. 5 DIR: Alexi Alexeev (Hungary / Russia 2008, 2’)
Crocodile DIR: Kaspar Jancis / Estonia 2009, 17’)
Wind Along the Coast DIR: Ivan Maximov (Russia, 2003, 7’)
Aalterate DIR: Christobal De Olivera (France, 2012, 10’)
Welcome to Kentucky DIR: Craig Welch (USA, 2004, 12’)
Nightingales DIR: Theodore Ushev (Canada 2011, 3’)
Madame Tutli Putli DIR: Chris Lavis, Maciek Szcerbowksi (Canada 2007, 17’)
Log Jam: Snake DIR: Alexei Alexeev (Hungary, Russia, 2008, 1’)
Fast Film DIR: Virgil Widrich (Austria / Luxembourg, 2003, 14’)
Log Jam: The Moon DIR: Alexi Alexeev (Hungary / Russia 2008, 2’)

Tickets: £6 / £20 Film pass-------------------------------------------Thursday 7 February (7.30pm), Traverse Theatre
PERFORMANCE
Physical Theatre Scotland

After the WaveTickets: £15.50 / £11.50 / £6
-------------------------------------------Thursday 7 February (9.15pm), Traverse Theatre
PERFORMANCE

Yael Rasooly (Israel)

Paper Cut

Tickets: £15.50 / £11.50 / £6

-------------------------------------------
Friday 8 February (6.05pm), Traverse Theatre
SCREENING: Edinburgh College of Art Animation Showcase
Snapshots: Creation and Play – 6.05

I am Tom MoodyBy Ainslie Henderson

Free, ticketed-------------------------------------------
Friday 8 February (7.30pm), Traverse Theatre
PERFORMANCE

Cloud Eye Control (USA)
Final Space, Ocean Flight, Myth and Infrastructure: 3 Short Works

Tickets: £15.50 / £11.50 / £6-------------------------------------------
Friday 8th February (10.00pm), Traverse Theatre
SCREENING: FEATURE FILM

Consuming Spirits
DIR: Chris Sullivan (USA, 2012)

Tickets: £6 / £20 Film pass-------------------------------------------

Saturday 9th February (2.00pm), Summerhall
SEMINAR
Participatory seminar with Gareth Vile

Free, ticketed from Summerhall Box Office (0845 874 3001 / www.summerhall.co.uk)

-------------------------------------------

Saturday 9th February (4.00pm), Summerhall
PLATFORM PERFORMANCE

Dropkick (Scotland)
TornTortoise in a Nutshell (Scotland)
Feral

Free, ticketed from Summerhall Box Office (0845 874 3001 / www.summerhall.co.uk)
-------------------------------------------Saturday 9th February (6.05pm), Traverse TheatreSCREENING: Edinburgh College of Art Animation Showcase
Snapshots: Creation and Play – 6.05

The Making of LongbirdWill Anderson

Free, ticketed

-------------------------------------------
Saturday 9th February (7.30pm), Traverse Theatre
PERFORMANCE

Stuffed Puppet Theatre (Netherlands)

SCHIKLEGRUBER...Alias Adolf Hitler

Tickets: £15.50 / £11.50 / £6

-------------------------------------------Saturday 9th February (10.00pm), Traverse Theatre
SCREENING: FEATURE FILM

Big Man JapanDIR: Hitoshi Matsumoto (Japan)

Tickets: £6 / £20 Film pass

------------------------------------------Tuesday 12th February - Saturday 16th February Traverse Theatre
PERFORMANCE

Vox Motus (Scotland)

Slick

Tickets: £15.50 / £11.50 / £6

-------------------------------------------

Thom Scullion: 86 per cent

It’s not entirely unfair to ask what the hell Thom Scullion thinks he is doing. Last time out, at Arches Live!, he filled up a room with retro computer games and let the audience go wild. I ended up in a particularly vicious combat with a press agent, missed two serious performances and finished the evening being dragged away from the machine by my colleagues. This time, he only had one game – some bloody impossible Jurassic Park tie-in – and I still ended up swearing at innocent audience members, only this time in frustration.

Scullion is one of the Live Art Young Team: impeccable credentials, only he has chosen not to go for monologues or choreography based on post-modern dance but computer games. Chatting to him after I had died six times on screen, he comes across as affable: his lecture, which tried to explain that computers are not as bad as the tabloids paint them, was remarkably intelligent. Yet instead of writing a script about the positives of gaming, he just lets people have a shot on his prized collection of games.

This might make it difficult to review – I mean, how am I supposed to give a star rating to a dinosaur that I am operating? – but it makes more sense. He has stripped away those fripperies of performance – the stage, the actors, the design – and aimed instead for the direct transmission of emotions. Now, I might be able to empathise with Oedipus’ frustration when the messenger won’t give him a reasonable answer to his questions, but I sure as shit feel it when my little dinosaur gets eaten by the big one in exactly the same place for the fifth time.

He also saves himself a bundle on the post-show discussion. His corner of the Old Hairdressers is packed with people, shouting encouragement or laughing at my failure. In short, he doesn’t need to write an essay on how gaming makes a community, he just makes the community.

It’s a sharp idea, and it does all the hard work – once he has got it all plugged in, the installation takes care of itself. It doesn’t hurt that Scullion hovers around, charming and chatting, but the event is an object lesson in how to get the impact of a theatre piece without splashing out on an author, an audience, a stage and a script. Besides that, it is a little more fun than half an hour of incest, monologue and chorus.