DIY: 2016 – Stacy Makishi ‘Kick My Butt’lins!’

THE DEADLINE FOR THIS DIY HAS NOW PASSED

Hello Campers! Do you need a break? Do you need a boot up the ass?

Project summary

Hello Campers! Do you need a break? Do you need a boot up the ass?
Announcing Kick My Butt’lins! – Live Art Holiday Camp. Our Mascot: The Beaver.
Part Boot Camp. Part Party. Why? Because we’re tired.

Commercial Break:
(Moans from a throng of despairing live artists.)
Crowd: “Stacy Makishi! Making a living is killing us! We’re sick and tired.”
I yell back: “Well, what do you want me to do about it?”
Crowd: “Kick my Butt’lins!”

In 1936, Billy Butlin opened his first holiday resort. His aim was to bring colour and happiness into the lives of hardworking families. I share that mission. I believe my hardworking live art family is in need of a holiday!

Kick my Butt’lins asks:
Can ‘fun’ add rigor to the creative process?
Can ‘rest and relaxation’ add muscle to one’s practice?
Can re-creation make more-creation?
Can dancing, singing, shouting, swearing, sharing, eating, drinking and playing shape ‘community’?
Can ‘community’ activate more political, subversive, consciousness-raising, dangerous, risk-taking, LOVING ART?

Kick My Butt’lins will run over two consecutive weekends (4 days total) in September and October.

There are two parts to the project: ‘Live Art Boot Camp’ and Butt’lins Holiday Camp and Gala Variety NIght – ‘Eat Raw Beaver’ (open to the public)

Part one: ‘Live Art Boot Camp’
(consists of 3 days) 

Artists will interrogate how re-‘creation’ impacts the creative process. The workshops consists of creative/ personal/ professional development explorations. Field trips, creative writing, movement, performance and image making. We’ll share ‘live-art horror stories’ around a fireless campfire. Artists will remember how to ‘play’ and to let their souls dangle.

At the end of each day, we’ll discuss/plan our Butt’lins Live Art Holiday Camp and Gala Variety Show – ‘Eat Raw Beaver!’ which will culminate on the last day.

Part two: Butt’lins Holiday Camp and Gala Variety Night ‘Eat Raw Beaver!’
(consists of 1 day and night.)

On the last day, (include date) the artists will act as ‘Butlins’ Redcoats’.

Their jobs will be:

• To operate as host to the public
• To engage/encourage the public to participate in our ‘activities’.
• To participate in activities (which might include to learning a dance, to sing-a-long and other events).

They will also have a chance to share a 5 minute performance as part of ‘Eat Raw Beaver’- a variety night of raw performances. The night will be filled with a audience participation! Games! Real prizes! Raw performance! Singing! Shouting! And DISCO!

Participants

Kick My Butt’lins is looking for artists who suffer ‘creative fatigue’ and ‘artistic burnout’. We’re also looking to recruit ‘redcoats’ – people who are open to working with the public as ‘hosts’.

The application requires a paragraph about your creative journey, a paragraph about why you need a boot up the butt, and a paragraph on why you need to take this workshop. CVs are optional.

Dates, times and location

Dates: Sat 24 – Sun 25 Sep, and Sat 1 – Sun 2 Oct (participants should be free to attend on both weekends)
Location: Southbank Centre, London
This DIY is supported by Southbank Centre

The artist

Stacy Makishi is a transplant from Hawaii who found paradise in Dalston, London in 1993. After graduating from the University of Hawaii she worked as a stand-up comic at the Comedy Store. But when her punchlines punched back, Stacy found herself happiest when making what New Yorkers called Performance. When she eventually washed up on English shores, Stacy began to work in diverse disciplines; her present work is the result of cross-fertilization between theatre, comedy, film and visual art. Perhaps it is hard to pigeon-hole because the work has grown out of so many genres and media. It is as complex as it is accessible; humorous as it challenging; visual as it is literate. Over the past decade, Stacy Makishi has been awarded an ICA Attached Artist Award, Millennium Fellowship Award, a Live Art Development Agency One to One Bursary, an Artsadmin Bursary and the Franklin Furnace Award. She is an Associate Artist with Artsadmin, Chelsea Theatre and New Unity. www.artsadmin.co.uk/artists/stacy-makishi www.stacymakishi.com/