AUDITIONS!!!!!!
(Untitled): A Queer Fantasia on (Inter)National Themes
INFORMATION
ISO: Queer folks of any identity, any age, any experience level, who are ok with wading into the unknown, collaborating, and playing.
The Vibe/Starting off point: Calling upon queer dance parties, gender euphoria, that nod on the street, not gay as in happy, but queer as in fuck you – what does it mean to be in a room together and make something in this present moment? In this current dumpster fire, let’s find some queer joy and celebrate it. Two quotes that I’m ruminating on at the moment:
“Being queer saved my life. Often we see queerness as deprivation. But when I look at my life I saw that queerness demanded an alternative innovation from me. I had to make alternative routes, it made me curious; it made me ask, ‘Is this enough for me?’” – Ocean Vuong
“I’m not saying we’ll live to see some sort of paradise. But just fighting for change makes you stronger. Not hoping for anything will kill you for sure.” – Leslie Feinberg
Auditions: Sunday September 21st, 1-4pm Dekum St Theatre. This is a workshop style audition, so you’ll be there for the duration but don’t need to prepare anything in advance. Wear clothes you can move around in, bring some water, a snack, and something to write with. Sign up here.
Payment: at minimum all involved will receive a share of ticket sales. Other funding revenues are being pursued.
Rehearsals: Rehearsal process will start in October and culminate in a showing/performance as part of Fertile Ground Festival in April. From October to January there will be 2 rehearsals a month, each three hours in length. Rehearsals will increase to 3-4 a month in February/March. Further rehearsals added in April in anticipation of performance/tech week. Fertile Grounds runs from April 10-26, performances will fall in that area. Days/times/locations of rehearsals and performances TBD.
Process: This will be an ensemble devised work with a director (me). In general I am interested in/pull from: authentic movement, personal narrative, clown, butoh, the stories our bodies make together, pop culture reappropriation, buffon, found text, sweet dance moves, and play. There is also room for what’s interesting to you, we’re making this together!
Accessibility: To get into Dekum St Theatre for auditions you’ll have to go down a little side alley thing (behind a gold gate). There are no steps to get in. If you have any accessibility needs/questions, please reach out.
My background:
Hi! I’m Ashley. I’m a white non-binary queer person (they/them). I have over fifteen years of devising experience working with many different folks in many different styles. In terms of formal training, I have an MFA in experimental theatre from Columbia College Chicago, I have completed year one of the LISPA training (a LeCoq based program), and taken workshops and intensives in many different techniques. I feel like I pull stuff from every instructor I’ve ever had and everyone I’ve ever shared a rehearsal room with.
Previous devising and directing credits in Portland include: Something Epic Everyday, Peter Pan Project, and Independent Women, and Bike Play 13: Beyond Velodrome PDX Drift. Original written work includes Dance Dance Revolution: Emma Goldman’s American Years (2022)
Interested? Sign up via this google form
Questions? socialsciencesproductions@gmail.com
ALL MY LITTLE WORDS goes to Denver!
I’m so excited to be taking ALL MY LITTLE WORDS to Denver to be part of the Denver Fringe Festival!
ALL MY LITTLE WORDS will be performing at Ironton Distillery Gallery (3636 Chestnut Pl, Denver, CO 80216). With performances on June 6 @8pm, June 7 @6:30pm, June 8 @6pm. More info and tickets here!
Social Sciences Productions and Granmo+Bron present an evening of two solo shows. Longtime collaborators and friends Ashely Hollingshead and Devon Wade Granmo share the stage with their respective solo shows, ALL MY LITTLE WORDS and (untitled human composting play) for a special two night Portland engagement at The Headwaters Theatre.
Tickets
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ALL MY LITTLE WORDS: A Performance Lecture on Art and Failure
Created and performed by Ashley Hollingshead
I’m afraid of being an artist who doesn’t make art.
In 2004 Ashley met Nate while they were both undergrads. They became best friends and life long artistic collaborators…or that was the plan anyways.
In ALL MY LITTLE WORDS Ashley uses Nate’s unfinished graduate playwriting thesis as a jumping off point to explore the concepts of artistic failure, practice, and success. All the while examining their changing relationship with Nate and with their own artistic practice in this interactive performance/lecture/essay.
ALL MY LITTLE WORDS has been performed as part of The Third Mask Festival, The Rhino Festival, and been presented at Western Washington University, and The New Prospect Theatre.
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(untitled human composting play)
Text & Performance by Devon Wade Granmo
Direction & Design by Stephen Bron
Let’s Talk About Death. Let’s Sing the Song of Decomposition and Dance the Dance of Shuffling Bones. Let’s Parley With A Fungal Network. Let’s Turn Into A Flower. An Informational How-To on Human Composting interspersed with Nostalgia Death Trip Tangents, Indie Folk Songs Played on Cracked Organ, and Exuberant Dances, all contained within a world of Watercolor Mushrooms and Overhead Projector Silhouettes, (untitled human composting play) is a meditation on Death, Decomposition and How To Live When NOW IS ALL YOU HAVE.
(untitled human composting play) premiered at Brick Aux for the Exponential Festival in January 2023. Devon Wade Granmo (he/him) is a writer, performer & theater artist who hails from the mossy forests of the Pacific Northwest and now lives and works in Brooklyn. In addition to his own work, he frequently performs and collaborates with other Brooklyn-based theater artists. He received his BA in Theatre from Reed College in 2006 and from 2007-2015 was an artistic producing company member of Action/Adventure Theatre, a theater
collective and performance venue which he co-founded in Portland, OR.
Stephen Bron (he/him) is a painter living and working in Brooklyn. He received his BFA in painting at The Cooper Union in 2015, and received his MFA in Painting at NYU in 2017.
devonwadegranmo.com stephenbron.com
ALL MY LITTLE WORDS: A Performance Lecture on Art and Failure
Created and Performed by Ashley Hollingshead
SPRING 2023 PERFORMANCES!
I’m afraid of being an artist who doesn’t make art.
In 2004 Ashley Hollingshead met Nate Harpel while they were both undergrads at Western Washington University. They became best friends and life long artistic collaborators…or that was the plan anyways.
In ALL MY LITTLE WORDS Ashley uses Nate’s unfinished graduate playwriting thesis as a jumping off point to explore the concepts of artistic failure, practice, and success. All the while examining their changing relationship with their collaborator and with their own artistic practice in this interactive performance/lecture/essay.
SPRING 2023 PERFORMANCES!
4/7 @ 7:30pm Old Main Theater Bellingham, Wa – Free & Open to the public!
4/8 @ 7:30pm New Prospect Theatre Bellingham, Wa – Tickets here
5/6-5/7 @ 7:30pm Headwaters Theatre, Portland, Or – With Devon Granmo’s Untitled Human Composting Play
DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION: Emma Goldman’s American Years is a new play written and directed by Ashley Hollingshead based upon the feared and famed Anarchist’s life. Starting with her infamous misquote “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution” and ending with her deportation, DDR explodes the idea of Goldman: revolutionary Anarchist, free-love advocate, and “the most dangerous woman in America”.
A mash-up of contemporary dialogue, pop music, and the text from some of Goldman’s greatest speeches combine to explore the enduring concept of how to live your ideal when the world seems stacked against you. Of course, there will be dancing.
Featuring Cosmo Reynolds, Austyn Stone, Virginia Thayer, and kd sweaney
Written and Directed by Ashley Hollingshead
With Stage Management by Talle Selhorst
Projection Design by Tamara Carroll
Costume Design by Debra Muir
Light design by Sophina Flores
Social Sciences Productions 