The PaperBoats partnership platform is developing a “cumulative making” model for devising performances for children.
It’s a process that builds an ecology of engagement and partnership between communities of artists, presenters, educators and audiences across international borders.
We're seeing capacity and opportunity developing across the entire ecology.
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Boat Rocker Entertainment joins The PaperBoats
How delightfully appropriate it is to have Jim Weiner join The PaperBoats team as a key partner to add his boat-rockin’ sass and wisdom to our adventures.
Jim is the Managing Director of Boat Rocker Entertainment, a theatrical production, management, marketing and representation company located in New York.
Boat Rocker Entertainment represents a remarkable bevy of artists that reveals Jim's great love for physical theatre, contemporary circus, theatre for young audiences and arts education. He has a heart for theatre that is visually and emotionally charged.
I love the artists that Jim represents and I have great admiration and respect for the man himself; his wisdom, generosity, humour and humanity. What a great joy and privilege it is to have him onboard!
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When I asked Jim where the name "Boat Rocker" came from, here’s what he said.
It’s inspired by a few things.
Boat Rocker #1: My brief but spectacular stage career consisted of a two-performance turn as Nicely Nicely Johnson in our high school production of Guys and Dolls. My family swore I brought the house down singing “Sit Down Your Rockin’ the Boat.”
Boat Rocker #2: Years later I discovered sailing but proved to be less than a stellar yachtsman, especially at the outset.
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Boat Rocker #3: I was a rather fanatical baseball fan for most of my life and the semi-mystical baseball movie “Field of Dreams" made a big impression on me.
The character of Terrence Mann is supposedly based in part on Michael Mann. "The Boat Rocker” is a the name of a volume of poetry by Michael S. Pendergast III, whose pen name is Michael Mann.
Part of his poem “The Boat Rocker” is quoted at length—or rather paraphrased in a soliloquy by Nicholas Cage’s character in the movie “Moonstruck.”
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Boat Rocker #4: I had the hope when I started this latest phase of my theater career representing creative people as a producer, agent and manager, that I would conduct my business in what I considered to be an unorthodox manner.
By being open and transparent about all aspects of my business including financial matters, many of which are considered proprietary information by others, my intention has been to rock the boat.
I look at the PaperBoats team Dave has assembled and marvel that I have been asked to join this extraordinary and talented group.
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Talk about rocking the boat.
The PaperBoats is all about upsetting the status quo by finding new and creative methods to make and distribute great theatre for young people.
I am honored to be asked to pull one oar.
Welcome aboard Jim Weiner and BoatRocker Entertainment.
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I asked two of our key partners, Dr Brant Pope and Dr Megan Alrutz, what they “get most” from being part of The PaperBoats.
Here’s what they said ...
Brant: What was Dave yearning to do when he arrived at The PaperBoats platform idea? He already was a successful maker of theatre for young children with years of experience at the Patch Theatre and he had a very clear idea of his own way of working as a deviser and a director. He was at the top of his game, so what was making him so restless?
When we first met, I told him I was keen to write a book on his methodology (the 7 principals) because I wanted to share this process with an American audience, both to persuade TYA producers that there actually IS a way of going about making theatre for the very young, and also to inspire and encourage producers and presenters that this work is exciting and important. In effect, I was a vehicle for sharing the fruits of his life’s work.
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But Dave was searching for a new dimension; a new paradigm. He found it in the central idea of making work in conjunction with other like-minded partner communities operating from a central inspirational premise. This new kind of collaboration really excited Dave…. and myself.
The PaperBoats has created the possibility, through partnerships and technology, of working across cultures, languages and traditions to make work that is the product of the continual interchange and inspiration from member partners.
It has also provided, in the North American context, new possibilities for TYA companies to consider producing work that was once deemed impractical.
Now I have TWO books to write!!
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Megan: The Paper Boats platform has offered really meaningful opportunities for artistic and intellectual exchange.
I’ve gotten a window into the devising and directing process of other key partners and I’ve gained outside perspectives on my theatre-making practice and my dramaturgical approach.
Working across countries and cultures has invited all of us to slow down and re-think some of our assumptions around the ways we make work, the language and frameworks we use and the larger systems that shape our approach to quality to theatre for young people.
Finally, the process of slow-brewing—with others who are doing the same—has yielded some exciting new theatre and engaged a lot of new makers.
Together, we are building capacity and quality in a variety of ways.
It's nothing short of inspiring!
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The PaperBoats is a partnership platform. It is designed to bring passionate people together around theatre-making for children.
Naomi Edwards, Artistic Director of Patch Theatre Company, said in a Kindling presentation we shared at IPAY recently ...
"You only need to find one person to establish a partnership; the right person!”
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Naomi went on to share this story ...
"Stephen Champion, an extra-ordinary venue manager from Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia has a long term relationship with Patch Theatre which began years before my time here.
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Soon after I became Artistic Director, I travelled to Bathurst to meet him. I was really nervous because it was a very important relationship for the company - a very deep one - and here I was trying to figure out how to take it forward.
Within about 3 minutes, I realised that we shared the same values and we wanted the same things and so it was immediately apparent that we were looking at the same star. Maybe that’s what you need to ask when you’re looking for partners?
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Who is looking at the same star as you? Who are those people that are dreaming into the same big star?"
What great image! Good partners dream into the same star.
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I recently heard that the new buzz word for engagement is “entanglement”. I like it! That’s what good partnerships feel like to me.
They're open, messy, honest, grateful, passionate, respectful, irreverent, connected, reciprocal; all served by the purpose at hand; in our case, making extra-ordinary theatre for children.
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The first "partnership" journey of The PaperBoats is “proof of concept” investigation unfolding across the 5 years from 2016 to 2020. We’ve developed a system of international co-creation underpinned by 7 creative principles and we're making stuff.
If by 2020, we have refined our system and delivered some distinctive new works for children in our partnership communities (US, Aust, NZ and Singapore) then we’ll use our body of knowledge and experience to start a second journey with a broader collection of partners embracing more ambitious co-creation ventures.
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The PaperBoats Partner Relationship Structure
Key Partners are The PaperBoats international partnership directors representing the 4 countries (Australia, USA, New Zealand and Singapore).
Associate Partners are those individuals and their organizations, who become creatively involved in a partnership project of The PaperBoats.
Presenting Partners are those individuals and their organizations, who host The PaperBoats to present a performance season, a residency performance, a workshop, a conference presentation or any presenting activity.
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If you wish to respond, comment on, query, discuss or contribute to any of these ideas, please email me: dave@thepaperboats.com
To find out more about The PaperBoats please check out provocations 1 to 11 and view the website - http://www.thepaperboats.com
The PaperBoats is grateful to the partnership and support of the Australia Council for the Arts, University of Texas, Department of Theatre and Dance and the Adelaide College of the Arts for their contribution to the development of this platform. We welcome BoatRocker Entertainment to the team.
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This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory group.
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