An immersive artist-made haunted house is seeking Denver-based artists
- What: Call for Proposal
- Deadline: January 15, 2019 @ Midnight
- Q&A Session: December 9, 2019 @ 6-7pm
- Where: RedLine (2350 Arapahoe St; Denver, CO 80206)
- Info: www.no-place-to-go.com
DENVER – “No Place to Go” is an artist-made haunted house where unrealized fears manifest in an immersive world driven by choice-making and the horror of the binary. A collaborative project directed by Serena Chopra, Kate Speer and Frankie Toan, “No Place to Go” will premiere in October 2020. The work merges the absurdist storytelling of dance-theatre with tactile, interactive visual art installations to create environments where the audience can examine and embrace the interaction between fear and desire. Each room is a fantastical realm that will be designed by a visual artist. Interested artists are invited to submit proposals for room designs in the haunted house. The call proposal is open November 2019 until January 15, 2020 at midnight. Visit www.no-place-to-go.com for more info.
“No Place to Go” grew out of Frankie Toan and Kate Speer’s artistic collaboration on [Colony 933] in 2018. An immersive mystery dance-theatre, [Colony 933] was set in a post-apocalyptic world where the sun no longer rises. With a plot written by Frankie Toan and directed by Kate Speer, the project was conceived of and created collectively with 20 different artists. [Colony 933] had a sold-out run of seven shows. “No Place to Go” will build on this collaborative dynamic that wove together the entire creative team’s vision with an attention to voice and agency. The addition of co-director Serena Chopra, who recently relocated to Seattle, rounds out the team’s complementary expertise in text/narrative, performance, and visual/tactile art.
With immersive art becoming a growing field in the US, “No Place to Go” aims to widen the possibilities for immersive projects. The project will use queerness as an aesthetic for world-making. We are defining “queer” broadly as culturally non-dominant and marginalized bodies, experiences, imaginations and practices. The term “queer” disrupts the problematic binaries implicit in delineations of dominant/non-dominant and normative/non-normative, which act to further marginalize queer bodies, spaces and imaginations. Queerness offers the possibilities to reflect back to us our potential for difference. We believe immersive theatre is intuitively queer in its disruptions of hierarchical forms, as well as its occupation of alternative spaces.
To amplify local Denver talent and broaden the immersive field, the team is requesting interested artists to submit proposals detailing their room imaginings for consideration in the haunted house. We are interested in working with artists seeking to find creative potentials for their own and our collective queerness. Artists do not have to be LGBTQAI identified, as we wish to expand the definition of what queerness can be. To learn more about the project, the leadership team will be holding a Q&A session at RedLine on December 9th, 2019 at 6-7pm. Proposals can be submitted at www.no-place-to-go.com via Google Forms. The deadline is January 15, 2019 at midnight MST. For more information, visit www.no-place-to-go.com.
About the Co-Directors
Based in Denver, Frankie Toan (they/them/theirs) is an artist working mostly with craft and DIY materials and techniques to create large plush sculptures, interactive works, and immersive installations. Frankie holds a BFA in Craft/Material studies from Virginia Commonwealth University, with a minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s studies. Their current body of work consists of elongated or engorged body parts tied, arranged, and installed in conversation with each other, creating fantasy bodies. Frankie has participated in many group shows and collaborations nationwide. Recent projects include a commission for Meow Wolf’s Kaleidoscape immersive ride at Elitch Gardens and their public art installation “Public Bodies” for Between Us Alleys, a citywide art intervention. They have had residencies at RedLine (CO) and Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (TN). An avid mystery theatre fan, Frankie has written 3 mystery theatre plots, including the collaborative production [Colony 933]. Website: https://fetoan.com
Serena Chopra (she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary artist. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Denver, an MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder and was a 2011-2013 RedLine artist in Residence, a 2016-2017 Fulbright Scholar (Bangalore, India), and has received a month-long artist residency at Understudy Denver for September 2020. She has two books, This Human (Coconut Books 2013) and Ic (Horse Less Press 2017), as well as two films, Dogana/Chapti (2018, winner of ArtHyve’s Archives as Muse Film grant, Official Selection at Frameline43, Oregon Documentary Film Festival, Seattle Queer Film Festival, Nahia Film Festival and Cinema Diverse) and Mother Ghosting (2018). She is an 8-year company member with Evolving Doors Dance and was recently a featured artist in Harper’s Bazaar (India) as well as in the Denver Westword’s “100 Colorado Creatives.” She has forthcoming publications in Foglifter and Matters of Feminist Practice (Belladonna). Serena is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Seattle University. Website: SerenaChopra.com
Kate Speer (she/her/hers) is a dancer, choreographer, and organizer based in Denver, CO. She has had residencies at RedLine (CO), PlatteForum (CO), Middlebury College (VT), Swarthmore College (PA), and Mascher Space Cooperative (PA), all of which emphasize community engagement that is inherent in her dancemaking. Often self-producing in DIY spaces, her own choreography has been supported by National Performance Network Creation Fund, Colorado Creative Industries Career Advancement Grant, and the Puffin Foundation, and has been presented at Performatica (Cholula, Mexico), Boulder International Fringe Festival (CO), Philly Fringe (PA), ETC Performance Series (PA), and FAB Dance Showcase (ME). Always seeking collaborative performance projects, she directed [Colony 933], an immersive mystery dance-theatre conceived of and created collectively with 20 different artists in visual, performance, and music. She has had the pleasure to perform in work by Gesel Mason Performance Projects, Ondine Geary, Raja Feather Kelly, Tania Isaac, and Claudia Lavista. Website: http://www.katespeerdance.org/
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