warnmcr: MAPS and Guilds and more...

Word of Warning...

The end of summer flurry of activity continues - thanks largely to Preston Guild Week which is reaching its climax.  Alongside the general activity in Preston this weekend of interest is AND's The Humble Market (which I think is sold out), Jeremy Deller's Sacrilege and the climactic Lakes Alive On The Nightshift. 

Whilst there is some great stuff on in Preston and much of it is free, like the above, a quick heads-up that if you are wanting to book for any of their ticketed events, Preston Guildhall online box office charges both 50p per ticket booking fee and £1.50 per transaction card charge for debit cards so you might want to find an alternative.

Happily the main point of interest for WoW is tomorrow's MAPS festival and it's free! A full day of live art and contemporary performance across a range of venues, with some familiar faces.

A reminder that  Live at LICA starts a series of sited projects with Invisible Flock's Sand Pilot (Sat 8, Mon 10, Sat 22 + Mon 24 Sept) and Louise Ann Wilson's Ghostbird  on Sat 15 + Sun 16 Sept.  In Lancaster itself, the Leaping Out event takes place at The Duke's on Sat 22 Sept, and sees the outcome of a week-long, 12 artist collaborative experiment.

Closer to home, Tam Hinton's And All These Sleepless Nights continues at the Lass O'Gowrie tonight 7 Sept and over in Salford, The Lowry's In On The Act Festival continures with You Once Said Yes (6-16 Sept).  Recent Works Ahead artist Lowri Evans embarks on a couple of sited projects  - here in Manchester on Sat 15 Sept with We Are Ten, an audio walk around Manchester, though if you fancy a daytrip further afield, she's in Llandudno with Give and Take this Sunday (9th).  Also intriguing is Tales of Whatever #12
 at the Castle Hotel on Oldham Street next Weds 12 Sept.

Not to forget, Liverpool Biennial kicks off next weekend, so I'll be keeping my eye out for anything of live interest there.

...and finally, if you are feeling generous, please go along to the Kidneys for Life Fundraiser at BLANKSPACE all afternoon tomorrow, Saturday (8 Sept).

best

Tamsin

 

warnmcr: coming out of summer snooze!

Word of Warning...
Summer seems to have vanished and Autumn seems to have snuck up on us rather suddenly - both weather and an enormous flurry of stuff to see.  I'm still wading my way through everyone's season info but I thought I'd send you this special, slightly premature WoW before deciding when to start back up in earnest.

As you may have noticed in Manchester, Abandon Normal Devices (AND) kicked off last night.  Way too much to summarise - but check out Lanfranco Acetti's A Dream Came Through at BLANKSPACE, today (Thurs 30 til 6pm) and Trixie Carr's Right to Rule at Gorilla on Sat 1 Sept.  I'm also intrigued by the Empire Drive In cinema and Meme Junkyard with Wafaa Bilal's inflatable Technoviking.

PAPER Gallery also has its opening on Sat 1st, Tam Hinton's And All These Sleepless Nights is at the Lass O'Gowrie on 6+7 Sept and over in Salford, The Lowry's In On The Act Festival kicks off with You Once Said Yes (6-16 Sept).

Preston Guild Week also kicks off tomorrow (Fri 31 Aug) - things you might want to check out are the Light Night (Fri 31) and Preston Tringe Festival (31 Aug-9 Sept), plus Sonia Hughes's My Dad Made Cars (2-5 Sept) and the MAPS festival on Sat 8 Sept. 

Further north, Live at LICA starts a series of sited projects with Invisible Flock's Sand Pilot on Sat 8, Mon 10, Sat 22 + Mon 24 Sept and Louise Ann Wilson's Ghostbird  on Sat 15 + Sun 16 Sept.

As I said, an enormous flurry of activity, so enjoy!  I'll go back to wading through Emergency proposals (Sat 13 October) and finishing off the WoW Autumn programme.  I'm guessing the WoW will be in a couple of weeks (14 Sept) unless something takes me by surprise in the meantime!

best

Tamsin

 

warnmcr: last call for festival fortnight!

Word of Warning... back to white!

Now the giddiness of Hazard has died down, we're back to normal, but think WoW will be taking a break for a few weeks as the seasons have well and truly wound down!

The Truth About Youth Festival is into its final few days, so don't forget to go and share some knowledge in the Quarantine, Between Us We Know Everything booth.24:7 Theatre is ongoing, but the big story of the weekend is the Urban Moves Festival in Castlefield, two days of free sited dance (Sat 28 + Sun 29 July).

Beyond that, it looks like everyone's going to either be glued to the Olympics - or hiding from it by heading for Edinburgh.

We, meanhwile are getting to grips with Autumn - the first thing we can reveal is that Emergency, our annual marathon of performance, will be back for its thirteenth Manchester outing and will be blossoming into 3 venues as part of the Manchester Weekender on Sat 13 October!  For anyone interested in presenting work, the call will open early next week at emergencymcr.org (deadline 28 August).

Have a nice summer and we'll be back - either in September (with some hints about our own Autumn season) - or on an ad hoc basis if something exciting pops up!

Best

Tamsin

warnmcr: Hazard dawns... and Manchester becomes Festival City #FestCityMcr #hazardmcr

Word of Warning... Manchester Festival City!
 
So we're exactly 24 hours away from Hazard and understandably giddy.  We have a gazebo, badges, t-shirts, sandwich boards and banners... and above all rain ponchos at the ready!  All we need now is a vintage double-decker bus, some artists and a city full of people and we'll be off.  Please do come and join us in St Ann's Square between 12 and 5pm tomorrow Saturday 21 July or keep your eyes peeled for yellow and black idiosyncracies all round town!

We're print-free this year, so all the details are online at hazardmcr.org.

We're really looking forward to welcoming our Nottingham visitors, Hatch, when the vintage bus rumbles slowly into town - and yes, we'll be holding our breath til it does!  Meanwhile,  if you feel like getting active, there's gaming aplenty from Larkin' About, and please, help us keep the #hazardmcr hashtag lively!

Despite frantic preparations, it hasn't escaped my notice that Manchester is absolutely bursting with festivals this fortnight  - there's a dramatic collision of four festivals this weekend alone - all developed firmly in the city, showing the full variety of what Manchester has to offer and featuring an eclectic mix of local, national and international work in every form imaginable!

Just as Hazard springs into life, Manchester Jazz Festival reaches its climax... and 24:7 Theatre Festival  (20-27 July) steps in to take its place.  We are very happy to be working alongside the Truth About Youth Festival (16-29 July) at the Royal Exchange Theatre, featuring Quarantine, Company Chameleon and lots of work by lots of young people. There's also the ongoing 'new kid on the the block', the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival and the fortnight then comes to a choreographic close with Urban Moves Festival (27-29 July) just before we all metaphorically take cover for the Olympics! 

And finally not a festival but exciting nonetheless, Blank Media Collective is also stepping outside its traditional home with the Projector Series, which launches at the Salutation on Thurs 26 July.

Anyway, back to weather proofing anything that's not tied down - hope to see you at Hazard tomorrow.


Best

Tamsin

warnmcr: the yellow edition! #hazardmcr

Word of Warning... Hazard special
Apologies for this unashamed bit of self-promotion, yellow background and all - but this week's Word of Warning is our big chance to harp on about next weekend's artistic goings-on in Manchester City Centre and our shiny new website hazardmcr.org.

It's time for the biennial Hazard micro-festival - sited intervention, unexpected performance and occasional strange behaviour.  So if you happen to be passing St Ann's Square between 12 and 5pm on Saturday 21 July please do come and see us... we'll be the ones with the big red vintage doubledecker bus.  (And if you really want to know - I'll be the one on the scooter probably lookng hassled.)

Alternatively if you happen to see a flash of yellow and black anywhere in the city centre then there's a good chance it's one of our roaming artists... or else the City is just playing along!

This fourth incarnation of Manchester's stripiest festival invites artists to play with the City - so in this year of all things olympian, get fit in the hula-hoopathon, see the goal posts shifting, or take a soapbox tour from the Olympics to the End of the World.  If you prefer things more contemplatvie, you can see the world through teen eyes, locate a missing soldier, have your fortune told or join our flatpack Nottingham tourists on their summer holiday to the North West. All the details are online at hazardmcr.org

We are delighted to be joined by Nottingham's Hatch and their bus-load of 'cultural tourists' and to boast a full-on pervasive gaming programme courtesy of our own Larkin' About.  We have something like 25 separate pieces (I keep losing count!) featuring:

Bill Aitchison, Amelia Beavis-Harrison, Alex Bidolak, sean burn, Clare Cochrane, Dangerous Times, Annette Foster, Gale-Feeny & Fishman, The Gramophones, Martin Hamblen, Tim Jeeves, Larkin' About, Lembrança UK, Liquid, Jessica Mautner, Julieann O'Malley, Rachel Parry, Michael Pinchbeck, Katherina Radeva, Simon Raven, SHRUG, Nicola Smith, Harald Smykla, Small Things, Zoo Indigo

The full programme - subject to change, and subject to the vagaries of the weather - is at hazardmcr.org  or for more of my ramblings you can follow me @hazardmcr or join in using #hazardmcr.

And finally - just to pretend I'm not completely partisan - it is a quiet week elsewhere.  To remind you Hazard is slotting itself right in the middle of the Royal Exchange's Truth About Youth Festival (16-29 July); and is followed closely by Urban Moves the following weekend before the world finally gives itself over to non-stop sport!

Best

Tamsin

 

warnmcr: is it too late to build an ark for Hazard?!

Word of Warning...

Just a brief word on this diluvian day - maybe we should turn our efforts from Hazard (Sat 21 July) to ark building!  On the subject of which (Hazard not arks) I was planning to boast about our shiny new website today but the gods of domain pointing seem to be too busy with the weather.  Anyway, the full programme will be up there for all to see very shortly indeed. Look out for things bus-shaped and with a touch of the Cliff Richards courtesy of our visitors from Hatch, Nottingham alongside a brand new crop of truly random incursions into an unsuspecting city centre!

Please do let me know if I'm missing stuff - but a very quick recap for next week :
At Z-Arts Ellie Harrison and Roshana Rubin-Mayhew's What is left - Grief Series Pt 3 on Tues 10 July. 
Future Artists at The Black Lion are screening Marina Abramovic's The Artist Is Present on Tues 10 July. 
At 3-Minute Theatre, Fighting Fit Productions show June Bride, a gay wedding cabaret. on Sunday 8 July,

Live at LICA Lancaster have a one-off:  Elfriede Jelinke's Sports Play on Weds 11 July
At Liverpool's Arabic Arts Festival  (6 - 15 July) there's an intriguing installation:  1979 on 12 July at the Unity,

Looking ahead, there's some really interesting stuff coming up at the Royal Exchange in the Truth About Youth Festival (16-29 July); as if I'd let you forget Hazard nestles in amongst all of that on Sat 21 July in St Ann's Square, then the city is taken over the following weekend by Urban Moves.

Best

Tamsin
 

warnmcr: some forward looking tips while we plan city domination!

Word of Warning...

Still beavering away on Hazard(Sat 21 July), yesterday was 'tell the powers-that-be-day', always amusing when you try to explain why someone's building a full size lego post box or turning themselves into a beach...

Things are definitely slowing down and heading into festivals mode for Summer - so, until we start bombarding you with Hazard information, I might go a bit quiet - so I thought it worth a quick re-cap and a glance ahead.

In Manchester, there's still time to catch Ben Mellor's Everything We Need at the Royal Exchange Studio (Thurs 28-Sat 30 June); a pre-Edinburgh showing of Gag Queens at the Black Lion  tonight Fri 29 June or Verve 2012 at the Lowry. 
Pigeon Theatre's, The Rehearsal book launch is this coming Tues 3 July at Z-arts;
and also at Z-Arts Ellie Harrison and Roshana Rubin-Mayhew's What is left - Grief Series Pt 3 on Tues 10 July. 
Future Artists at The Black Lion are also screening Marina Abramovic's The Artist Is Present on Tues 10 July. 
Also, on Sundays 1 + 8 July,  at 3-Minute Theatre, Fighting Fit Productions launch June Bride, a gay wedding cabaret. 
Incidentally, if the budget stretches, I'm also intrigued to catch Library Theatre's site-specific Manchester Lines, running til 7 July at No1, First Street.

There's still time to catch Ludus Festival(til Sun 1 July) in Leeds with a range of installations and interactions, and shows like Bobby Baker's Mad Gyms and Kitchens,  Ontroerend Goed's Audience, Balbir Singh's Synchronised and for families, Unlimited Theatre's The Giant and the Bear. Also in Leeds, InXclusion are active on Saturday with Achtung You Wayward Skies

And Live at LICA Lancaster have a one-off Elfriede Jelinke's Sports Play on Weds 11 July

Liverpool is taking over the crown of festival city with the Arabic Arts Festival  (6 - 15 July) - what caught my eye was a dance performance installation 1979 on 12 July at the Unity, and DaDaFest starts its extraordinary 6 week run (13 July - 2 Sept).  I'll be digesting its programme and making some suggestions shortly but, at first glance, late August (28-31)  looks like a good time to be heading that way.

And finally, a last minute one... if anyone is looking for a mad weekend away this weekend, grab your tent and head down to Gloucestershire for Inbetween Time Productions' Up to Nature... live art in a forest!

Back to the HAZARD planning  - today is shopping day - how much street branding paraphernalia can I buy for 50p?! Other interesting questions... how do we make a big red bus look yellow and black..? Ideas on a postcard...  Keep watching hazardmcr.org for details.

More thanks for the Edinburgh suggestions - please do keep them coming here!

warnmcr: AND previews but Leeds domination continues!

Word of Warning...

Parts Mancunian in the week ahead see the AND Preview Event at Cornerhouse on Fri 22 and Sat 23 June; Ben Mellor's Everything We Need at the Royal Exchange Studio (Thurs 28-Sat 30 June); a pre-Edinburgh showing of Gag Queens at the Black Lion on Fri 29 June, and also on Fri 29th, for the dance inclined: Verve 2012 at the Lowry. 

Looking a little further ahead and sensing that the season's slowing down and Word of Warning might become a bit more sporadic, a quick mention for two events at Z-arts by WoW friends and associates: Pigeon Theatre, who have a book launch on Tues 3 July for The Rehearsal, their trilogy of performance works, at Z-arts; and Ellie Harrison and Roshana Rubin-Mayhew's What is left - Grief Series Pt 3 on Tues 10 July.  Also, on Sundays 1 + 8 July,  at 3-Minute Theatre, Fighting Fit Productions' launch June Bride, a gay wedding cabaret.

Back to the coming week and Leeds continues its festival spree, with Daniel Bye's Six O'clock News at Carriageworks on Sat 23 as part of the Emerge 2012 festival; followed straight on by the Ludus Festival(25 June-1 July). Thurs 28, Fri 29 or  Sat 30 look like really good days to visit with a range of installations and interactions, and shows like Bobby Baker's Mad Gyms and Kitchens,  Ontroerend Goed's Audience, Balbir Singh's Synchronised and for families, Unlimited Theatre's The Giant and the Bear. Also in Leeds, InXclusion are active with Achtung You Wayward Skies

We meanwhile are in full HAZARD planning mode ahead of Sat 21 July - so look out for programme announcements at hazardmcr.org!

Thanks for the Edinburgh suggestions - please do keep them coming here!

Best

Tamsin


warnmcr: surprise...untapped seam of performance in Leeds!

Word of Warning...

Having said I wouldn't send a WoW this week... a bit of digging around has uncovered that Leeds seems to be turning into festival city - just not shouting loudly about it this side of the border!!

But first, closer to home, a quick reminder that today, Fri 15 is Greg McLaren's Doris Day Can F__K Off is at the Lowry Studio and Mother's Ruin is at Contact that same evening... it's probably just possible to squeeze the both in as long as you plan on making a suitably dramatic entrance into Mother's Ruin!
Next week, for the dance inclined, EDge 2012, the showcase of London Contemporary Dance School graduates lands at Contact on Thurs 21. 

And, as touted, Leeds springs into life with two weeks of festivals.  First up is the Emerge 2012 festival (18-24 June) then the Ludus Festival the following week.  From Emerge, what intrigued me were the two Works in Progress on Weds 20 and Thurs 21 June, and Daniel Bye's Six O'clock News at Carriageworks on Sat 23.

Think that's it for now - though if anyone wants to tell me differently, please do so! Suggestions are always welcome!

Also, I'm beginning to think ahead to the big summer slowdown and whether to go to Edinburgh! So... was wondering if anyone reading this might have already started thinking about festival and whether they might be up for sharing their tips?!  Any thoughts and ideas please post here!

Best

Tamsin

Standing reminders:
Word of Warning Spring/Summer Performance Collection listing
www.facebook.com/warnmcr     @warnmcr
For more musings on the extraordinary and the random check out doodlebug's weekly friday morning nugget at 8.30am on All FM radio... doodlebug mixcloud archive.
For all things independent film check Kino events
UK National Laughter Championships (17-24 June)