1001 nights cast: Theatre on the Internet

Australian performance artist Barbara Campbell is seeking twelve writers and/or performance artists to collaborate with her on 1001 nights cast, a short text-based work which she is currently performing each night for 1001 consecutive nights.

The workshop will give writers who would like to focus on writing for performance and performers who would like to exercise their writing muscles the opportunity to write material in a group situation with Campbell. It aims to take the normally solitary experience of the writer and turn it into a group experience.

What they produce will be performed live on the Internet by Campbell on nights 760, 761 and 762, when Campbell will be bringing the project to the UK. (Campbell is currently working on performance no. 730.)

Campbell’s performances will be relayed as a live webcast to anyone, anywhere, who is logged on to the website at the appointed time, that is, sunset at the artist’s location.

Each day’s performance is different and is created based on a Middle East news report that Campbell reads during the day. From a prompt word or phrase that leaps to her from the page, Campbell develops a watercolour that she posts on the website, then generates a story of up to 1001 words, which she performs at night.

The group will be given an overarching narrative premise. For example, a traveller arrives in London seeking guidance. Who are her guides? Who are her adversaries? The group will work on the general shape of the narrative’s three-day trajectory and decide how it will evolve for each day’s story/performance.

Each day will begin with performance-based writing warm-up exercises. The day’s prompt will be discussed, its context and its generative potential. Story tasks will be distributed amongst the group. Individual writing will be voiced and shared for re-writing, editing and given final form for performance.

Campbell’s 1001 nights cast as part of an Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship, which provides the funding that allows her to produce the project and travel. Campbell taught the history and practice of performance at Sydney College of the Arts; the University of Sydney Performance Studies Department; the University of Technology, Sydney and the Canberra School of Art. She has also worked in a range of non-theatre spaces including art galleries, museums, atriums, towers, public stairways, radio airwaves and currently the Internet.

The performances based on the writers’ work will take place in London on Friday 20, Saturday 21, and Sunday 22 July 2007. Applicants should write a paragraph describing “the sound of that morning” as well as a short CV highlighting the kind of writing and/or performance experiences they have had to date, and sent it to barbara@1001.net.au by 6pm on Friday 6 July 2007. A combination of experienced and inexperienced writers will be selected.

Writing for 1001 nights cast is part of DIY 4, a project that gives artists working in Live Art the opportunity to take part in a series of short training and professional development projects conceived and run by artists for artists.