We are looking for performers and poets, fun, imaginative and inquisitive people, with origins from around the world, now living in or around Birmingham, to collaborate with us on a 24 hour long performance on the top floor of the city’s iconic Rotunda building, between 18:00 on 19th January and 18:00 on 20th January, 2024.
Ultraopticon will be a multi-lingual live streamed video/radio performance. It will be performed as a structured improvisation but there will be some rehearsals.
We have twelve paid guest slots to fill, each corresponding to a different two hour time zone. We are seeking collaborators whose first or home language corresponds with these zones. Each guest will be asked to join the core performance team for a two hour slot.
We are genuinely very open to submissions from people with origins in any country around the world, so the following list is just a reminder of some of the countries there are in the world:
Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, France, Ghana, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea (North or South), Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Pacific Islands, Philipines, Poland, Romania, Somalia, Spain, Syria, Turkey, USA, Vietnam, Yemen
Though prior experience of performance may help it is not essential. If you are interested in being considered please get in touch with us via the form you will find if you click here.
If you have any questions please email us on casting@stanscafe.co.uk
What will I be doing?
We’ve had a couple of people ask for more details as to what their role as guest artist will involve and what the commitment will be. Here is some more information:
Ultraopticon is an attempt to watch the world for a day. It is a 24 hour act of surveillance, which mixes looking from the top floor of the Rotunda with telescopes, with using the internet, news sites and social media to relate other events around the world as they happen. It’s an artistic, sideways take on a rolling news program. The focus of the news rolls around the world as the world turns.
The guest slots are each two hours long and are arranged so they include 18:00 in the country of the guest’s ‘home language’. Guests will ‘present’ Ultraopticon alongside and supported by one of the two host presenters, who are there for the full 24 hours. We would like guests to mix presentation between English and their ‘home language’.
The material presented will be improvised in response to what is happening and what is revealed through live research. The improvisation will be structured through a list of prompts, suggestions and strategies.
Each guest will be invited to a rehearsal in order to shape and practice for the improvisational slot. Guests will be able to choose between a number of rehearsal slot options so rehearsals are convenient for guests and hopefully bring a few guests together at the same time.