performance encyclopaedia

Collapsing the notions of publication and performance creates a performance in the shape of a book.

A cast of artists write a book together about art-making and viewing over the course of a weeklong rehearsal process. They edit, print and bind the book together, then share it with an audience. After an hour, the writers take the books away. Every iteration of the performance encyclopaedia is an entirely new and revealing group effort, readable only in the highly contingent and social conditions of performance.

For the brief time it remains in circulation, it stages a present moment where reading is a convivial act and writing produces knowledge in the form of temporal and collective experience.

Created by Ame Henderson and Evan Webber with Shannon Cochrane, Frank Cox-O’Connell, Sherri Hay, Erin Shields, Malcolm Sutton and Jacob Zimmer

Design by Jeremy McCormick

Collaborating writer-performers:

The Theatre Centre: Shannon Cochrane, Frank Cox-O’Connell, Sherri Hay, Ame Henderson, Erin Shields, Malcolm Sutton, Evan Webber and Jacob Zimmer

Art Gallery of York University: Suzanne Carte, Emelie Chhangur, Janis Demkiw, Maggie Flynn, Ame Henderson, Emily Hogg, JP King, Michael Maranda, Olia Mishchenko

Toronto Dance Community Summer Love-In: Andrea Cownden, lo bil, Allison Blakley, Robyn Breen, Wing Chan, Clara Chow, Mikaela Demers, Andrya Duff, Amelia Ehrhardt, Katie Ewald, Mairéad Filgate, Hannah Goldberg, Marcela Giesche, Ame Henderson, Vanessa Kimmons, Eroca Nicols, Merideth Plumb, Kelly Shaw, Ellen Soderhult, Shula Strassfeld and Evan Webber

Art Gallery of Ontario: Lillian Allen, Ame Henderson, sandra Henderson, Johanna Householder, Jessica Karuhanga, Sean O’Neill, Jeremy McCormick, Lisa Myers, Bojana Stancic, Wanda Nanibush and Evan Webber

Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting – Yokohama: Tomoyuki Arai, Ame Henderson, sandra Henderson, Manami Maeda, Jeremy McCormick, Helly Minarti, Prumsodun Ok, Kei Saito, June Tan and Evan Webber

Australian Theatre Forum: Tomoyuki Arai, Joshua Campton, Penny Campton, Shannon Cochrane, Ame Henderson, Jane Howard,  Afeif Ismail, Philip Kavanagh, Aunty Katrina Power, Merlynn Tong and Evan Webber

Produced by Public Recordings

Supported by the Theatre Centre, Nightswimming, Guernica Editions, Volcano Theatre

Developed in residency at The Theatre Centre

Support: Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council

Premiere January 2013, The Theatre Centre, Toronto

Photo: Adelaide–Ben Searcy
Photo: Yokohama–Hideto Maezawa