The premise of this event is an OpenMind for creative possibilities, and an OpenSpace to share them.
Each month we have a theatre practitioner sharing a new work in progress piece with an informal Q+A online beforehand making familiarizing them with our audience. However we are open to adjusting the format to fit our guests criteria as we've had a comedy headliner at our Christmas 2010 show, a a soul singer at our Valentine's 2011 show, and are looking into more theme specific nights from August 2011 onwards (poetry, music, comedy etc).
As well as the main OpenMind artist slot we derive our name from, we also book roughly 3 or 4 artists each month in 15 minute guest performance slots in the second half, often styles outside of traditional theatre. For instance poets, bands, comedians, musicians, MCs, and dancers have and shall continue to work with us.
We are also known for our OpenSpace, a one hour OpenMic with a difference - some pieces don't even need a mic. If you're a dancer you dance, if you're a contortionist you contort... basically whatever your performance skill or talent is, if you want to share it you're given 5 minutes to do so. Many of our guest and headline acts wowed us with their skill at the OpenSpace before going on to bigger and better things, and our supportive circle of artists often appear on the OpenSpace even when they're not heading the bill as part of our wider performance community within Manchester.
If you're a performer, writer, theatre practitioner, band, dancer, musician, singer, comedian, ventriloquist, breakdancer, beatboxer, MC, rapper, poet, circus performer or anything anywhere inbetween we're happy to give you a platform to perform. We've currently booked up all our 2011 guest slots but we will have 2 additional pre-show slots for our live stream in November and December, please contact us for more details if you're interested. We're all about sharing different performance styles in an open and friendly way, encouraging integration.
As well as our monthly OpenMind events we've also got numerous side projects and community outreach programmes with opportunities for real and dynamic interaction with the direction of the project. OpenMind is artist led. A testament to that is the growth of our relationship with the live music scene in Manchester and beyond. I set up the event with a theatre/traditional arts-centric focus and in time popular demand has made the focus shift to an all round performance community.
Now we've got our name out there, we are able to give the people what they want in a much bigger way and allow them to make the crucial decisions about their creative destiny and the direction of OpenMind itself.
OpenMind side projects/community outreach/services:
August 2011 onwards:
Filming and distribution:
OpenMind are available to hire for HD DVD/bluray quality filming and live internet streaming* (if there is an active internet connection in the venue) for community arts events in greater Manchester. We are free to hire besides basic travel expenses for our technician Ben Thomson (bus/local rail networks) which is still very cheap.
Our motive is simply to get the OpenMind name out there for a high standard and quality of work in everything we do, and only if you wish to sell the footage commercially either yourselves or via our own distribution would we take a fair and reasonable royalty of 10% per DVD/bluray/digital download.
Here is a list of our the projects we are currently supporting.
27th August, One Love, Dry Bar, Manchester
28th August, meeting with Dave Rayne of Futureshock Wrestling (me and Ben only), Stockport Masonic Guild Hall
14th September, Freestyle Fictionary, Sandbar, Manchester
18th September, The Gigs Bar, Bolton
19th September, Beatification, Sandbar, Manchester
28th September, OpenMind, TV 21, Manchester
29th September - 1st October, Infinite Perspectives, An Outlet, Manchester
October 2011 onwards:
OpenMind Jamaica:
OpenMind is a monthly artist-led 3 part variety show with 4 performers from a variety of disciplines/genres in the 1st part, 1 performer sharing a work in progress piece for an hour in the 2nd part, and finally an OpenSpace for performance from the audience led by the OpenMind Collective.
They formed in August 2010 following the Contacting The World festival where Ushiku was the Manchester representative in the European Youth Leadership Summit as part of the festival.
Now, OpenMind Collective are starting a Jamaican chapter led by Denile Campbell of the Jamaica Youth Theatre company, an amazingly talented young woman who the UK founders met at Contacting The World 2010.
The aim of OpenMind Jamaica is to give artist for all walks of life a chance to show their talent, whether it be Poetry, Dancing, Drumming, Singing etc. All art forms are welcome here.
OpenWrite: Fortnightly writing workshops for the people of Manchester with songwriting workshops from Jamie Deane of the band Apathy and creative writing/scriptwriting/prose/poetry workshops from myself, performance artist and writer Ushiku Crisafulli on the 1st and 2nd Wednesday of every month respectively.
The Fall of Man: The Seven Deadly Symbiotes sci-fi/comedy theatre project:
The Seven Deadly Symbiotes poetry anthology: A chance for poets nationwide to participate in a poetry project with pieces based around the seven deadly sins as an accompaniment to the second piece in our Infinite Perspectives sci-fi trilogy.
The Fall of Man Original Soundtrack: A music project alongside Riff Records and Longevity Records for independent musicians nationwide to also provide pieces based around the seven deadly sins and accompanying themes as an accompaniment to the second piece in our Infinite Perspective sci-fi trilogy.
The Fall of Man graphic novel project: My girlfriend Lindsay Honosky will be producing a graphic novel version of my theatre piece The Fall of Man: The Seven Deadly Symbiotes as an accompaniment to the second piece in our Infinite Perspectives sci-fi trilogy.
Young persons participant project: We're going to work with people aged 13 – 25 to help their academic and creative growth providing them opportunities to perform at our shows and be mentored by members of the OpenMind Collective in their chosen area whether it be poetry, technology/multimedia, theatre, comedy, music etc.
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Thank you for supporting the OpenMind Collective. Since day 1 we have been open and honest about how we spend our money and how we raise our money. With regular updates on our Facebook page. As everyday people who just happened to take the initiative we want to give back as best we can. If there is a specific aspect of our project you wish to fund please email ceo@openmindcollective.org.uk and we will endeavour to make it happen.
Regards,
Ushiku Crisafulli.
