Dawn Matheson

i sent this out to my email address book today:

Most of us have attended Nuit Blanche (If you haven’t, it’s a wild
night), but participating– moreover, performing–  really rocks. I am
looking for 10 minutes in the 12-hour duration of the evening.
Your time will generate a lot of free promotion (and a  potentially
HUGE audience) for yourself on the biggest art night of the year.
Plus, it’ll be a hoot.

(A link to a website of the project will follow, just, er, have to
make it first.) In the meantime, I am asking for your help in getting
the word out to any and all connections you may have in the ACTING
WORLD.

My project for Nuit Blanche (OCTOBER 2– all night in TORONTO) will be
installed at the GLADSTONE HOTEL on Queen St– hip hip hooray, as it
is a great venue at the heart of the Downtown Core exhibition. There
is TONS of traffic and they do tons of promotion.

Here’s a synopsis of the project:
Project AUDITION is a site-specific audio project performed outside on
the second-floor balcony of the Gladstone Hotel to an audience of
passersby on Queen Street below.  (If ever there was a balcony meant
for speeches, that’s the one.)
The work is composed of a succession of MONOLOGUES performed live (or
rehearsed– actor’s choice) by a mixed bag of amateur, professional,
famous and student actors working in film, television and theatre from
across Southern Ontario, as if auditioning for the open night, the
cityscape panorama, the Nuit Blanche art fan and the Queen Street
regular.
AUDITION allows the general public in on the first critical stages of
the creative process usually only privy to the director and stage
manager.
Catching perhaps just a snippet of a soliloquy, accidently
eavesdropping on a small intimacy, or hearing a line out of context,
the monologue– always just a part of larger story– takes on new
meanings and potential varying significances in contrast to the
surrounding scene on the street below in that moment.
What monologue will stop traffic? Which performance will generate a
crowd, which a boo? Here, an actor tosses their calling card off the
balcony– their voices will echo below, as will their passion, their
showmanship, their bravado, their fear, fumbling, and false starts.
*It’s the actor’s choice to remain anonymous (it is difficult to see
the speaker from the balcony) or self-promote through an introduction.
The choice of monologue(s) will be that of the actors (most actors
have a repertoire of many: classic and a contemporary monologues, both
dramatic and comedic) but will be determined in advance and scheduled.
For blank slots, I will accommodate impromptu monologues by Nuit
Blanche goers. (Yikes!)
A new monologue will be performed every 10 minutes.
I’m working on free drinks for participants. Whether you need it
before or after, it’s your call.

Please help me spread the word.
I will need approximately 70 actors. It is a short commitment (10
minutes), a fun one and hugely rewarding.
*** If you are involved in the FRINGE FEST or SUMMERWORKS or a
SOUTHERN ONTARIO THEATRE or THEATRE SCHOOL, please let me know how I
can promote the project there.
And if forwarding email, please include my address so I can keep track.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THIS.
It should be a GREAT party.
Best,

Dawn Matheson