LITMIR.BIZ

The idea of eliciting full participation of children in all aspects of society may seem far-fetched and will spark debate. O'Donnell puts this idea into practice in his work. He is the artist behind Haircuts by Children, a collaborative piece that is exactly what it sounds like and that has been performed internationally: http://mammalian.ca/projects/#haircuts-by-children (The haircut recipient in the lead photo is Coach House founder Stan Bevington!) He currently has projects implementing the ideas in the book in Germany, UK, and the US. And he is working on a succession plan to pass his theatre company, Mammalian Diving Reflex, on to children he's been working with since they were nine. He's now working to help others adapt their practice in the same direction.He's active in the both the Toronto and international artistic communities and has access to a number of well-known visual and literary contacts and festival organizers.O'Donnell authored a protocol for collaborating with children that won an award in 2012 from the Canadian Coalition on the Rights of the Child.

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Theatre doesn’t have much relevance anymore. Or so acclaimed playwright Darren O’Donnell tells us. The dynamics of unplanned social interaction, he says, are far more compelling than any play he could produce. So his latest show, A Suicide-Site Guide to the City, isn’t really a show; it’s an interactive chitchat about memory, depression, and 9/11, a dazzling whirl of talking streetcars, pizza and schizophrenia. And it’s hilarious. O’Donnell’s artistic practice has evolved into ‘something as close to hanging out as you can come and still charge admission.’ With his theatre company, Mammalian Diving Reflex, O’Donnell has generated a series of ongoing events that induce interactions between strangers in public; the Talking Creature, Q&A, Home Tours, the Toronto Strategy Meetings and Diplomatic Immunities bring people together in odd configurations, ask revealing questions and prove the generosity, abundance and power of the social sphere. Social Acupuncture includes the full text of A Suicide-Site Guide to the City and an extensive essay on the waning significance of theatre and the notion of civic engagement and social interaction as an aesthetic.

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pppeeeaaaccceee, is a vast, imaginative and mesmerizing glide through Life and Power. The play is set in Ephemeral; three people firmly floating chat – in O'Donnell's inimitable rapid-fire style – about the revolution. Which revolution? Good question. A gently aggressive meditation, pppeeeaaaccceee examines our being, asks us what we're doing and reminds us that there are monsters in here. Peace. Say it slow, stretch it out, make it last forever.

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These four plays – White Mice, Who Shot Jacques Lacan?, Radio Rooster Says That's Bad and Over – written by Darren O'Donnell for his theatre company, Mammalian Diving Reflex, will challenge your politics, your ontology and everything you hold to be safe, stable and sacrosanct.

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Dr. Thoughtless Actions, a young geneticist, awakes one morning to find a cardboard box secured to his head. Unable to wrench it off, he attempts suicide, not only failing but also, unbeknowst to himself, cloning himself, creating Dr. Wishful Thinking. The two losers fall in love, fall in science, and fail to make a baby. Their conversation, an intricately woven semantic circus, traverses boxedness, love, and the more ridiculous areas of metaphysical speculation. Through a series of rapid exchanges, verbal games, and musical numbers, they discover that all their thoughts come from God, all their words come from the devil, and their desire for love is a habit acquired from the cinema. Sound familiar? Don’t be so hard on yourself. [boxhead]: a bedtime story for your brain.

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