Queen's Drama Takes Art to the Streets

ARTS IS YOUR STORY: taking stories to the streets

In response to Stephen Harper’s characterization of arts as only of interest to an elite group and not relevant to ‘ordinary’ Canadians, we want to demonstrate the prevalence and importance of arts in all our lives. At its very core, art is about the human experience. Art is about storytelling. And we all have important stories to tell. We have a need to tell stories, but also we have a need to hear other people’s stories.

Therefore, to highlight our belief that everyone is bound together by arts and by the stories that artists tell, we propose to take our stories into the streets. Starting Monday Sept 29th, students, faculty and staff of the Queen’s University Drama department will be telling stories in public places. Working in pairs, we will locate ourselves around Kingston to read poems, read short stories, sing songs, play music, read from childrens’ picture books, talk about the Canadian documentary or film you loved, perform monologues, do puppetry…every kind of storytelling through art. Each performance will also have a sign or flyers explaining why we think that arts are an integral part of the life of every Canadian. We plan to document our performances, placing pins on a large wall map of Kingston and recording the title of the work of art, the name of the artist and the name of the performer. We will be highlighting a series of ‘story-days’ leading up to a large event just before the election.

We invite local groups, other departments at Queen’s and at departments at other universities to join us in this project.

We are also sending this invitation around the country, so feel free to pass it on. We will choose dates by Monday, planning for a day before the election when everyone available can go out on the street for a few minutes.

We also are just getting a blog going: [email protected]

If you wish to participate, please come to the launch of this project on Monday 29^th September at 5pm in the Green Room (down the hallway, opposite the main Drama Desk). Students: there will be pizza – please rsvp to your DRAM100 TA so we know how much to get. Also please feel free to forward this message far and wide. Thanks!

For information: Julie Salverson [email protected] (613)533-6000 x77485

Jenn Stephenson [email protected] (613)533-6000 x78597