SL ARTS & LITERATURE: StoryFest Returns to the Grid

For a second year, presenters, poets, and storytellers will gather at Bran for a day of adventures, and journeys, satyre, humor, and delight - all presented through stories presented live in voice.  "It's agreat line up of diverse presentations," said Dubhna Rhiadra, well know wandering half-elven storyteller and one of the event's hosts, "I am particularly gratified that there will be feegles represented this year."  The one day celebration begins Saturday morning at 10:00am, with the last session beginning at 5::00pm (all times SLT).  An expanded run down of the schedule is posted on the StoryFest Events Blog.

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SL ART & LITERATURE: Join Alice on Her Journey to Become a Queen – ART Presents THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Photo Courtesy of Crap Mariner

Disclaimer:  I am a columnist, not a critic.  That is my cop-out. With the generous support of our Editor, I write about what I like.  If I don’t like it, I don’t write about it.  So no matter what is said in this column, I loved Avatar Repertory Theater’s (ART) adaptation of Through the Looking Glass, based on the Lewis Carroll classic.  I think you should run, not walk, and get your ticket now while there are still tickets to be had for this marvelous production which plays through December 11^th for a limited number of performances.

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SL ART & LITERATURE: The Avatar Repertory Theater goes THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

After a hugely successful production of Alice in WonderSLand, the Avatar Repertory Theater (ART) continues their tradition of pushing the boundaries of creativity and what’s possible in virtual worlds. On Saturday, November 12 at 3pm, ART brings Lewis Carroll’s characters to life in a new production of Through the Looking Glass based on Carroll’s sequel work to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  View the You Tube Trailer, and get a taste of the magic and mischief that ART has prepared for audiences.  

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: The Martians Invade! to Benefit Susan G. Komen and Breast Cancer Research

Halloween is coming and Seanchai Library is getting into the spirit of the season, planning to raise some hairs, chill some bones and tingle some spines with a special production of War of the Worlds radio play written by Howard Koch and made famous by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre On The Air in October of 1938.Welles created mass hysteria with a production that mixed news reports and radio programming, voiced by skilled actors, to replicate the events H.G. Wells wrote about in his 1898 novel. The Seanchai Library will be presenting War of the Worlds in three public performances on the grid October 22nd through 26th, with guests invited to join the Seanchai Library in supporting Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: Samhain Festival 2011 Benefits the Make A Wish Foundation

Once more, the old year turns. The new world comes. Samhain is the end of the natural year and the birth of the new, a time to release the past and prepare for the future. Once again, we are celebrating this time with a month of live music, literary events, exhibits, vendors, freebie hunts, story telling and themed dances.  Fox Ravenheart and Serene Bechir (aka The Wild Roving Foxes), who brought the grid last December’s atmospheric Yule Festival have done it again with Samhain Festival 2011 which began October 3^rd and continues through the end of the month in Talisman.  This is the Second Samhain Festival they have presented, with all donations from this year’s event benefiting the Make A Wish Foundation.  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Talisman/28/182/22

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: BOOFest Schedule Announced

Presentations and presenters for October's BOOFest of ghost stories told around the spooky autumnal fires at Bran have been announced in a preliminary schedule. A baker's dozen or presenters with even more spooky and scary stories to share with Second Life residents in this free community event.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: Final Weekend of Avatar Repertory's "Merry Wives of Windsor"

Avatar Repertory Theater will present the final installment of  The Merry Wives of Windsor this Friday at 5pm SLT at their new theater space on Cookie.  A doctor, a parson and a judge go into a bar... will they remember the punch line? Will the lecherous Falstaff bed the luscious Alice and Meg before their husbands catch him? Fighting for the hand of rich pretty Anne are a penniless aristocrat, a wealthy idiot, and a rapier wielding Frenchman - will the parson die? Performed in live voice by Kayden Oconnell, Madame Thespian Underhill, Pipsqueak Albatros, Rowan Shamroy, Elegia Underwood, Corwyn Allen, Caliban Jigsaw, Sodovan Torok, Sam Brautigan, Em Jannings, Dolgoruky Umarov. Adapted and directed by Ada Radius. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cookie/201/206/21

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: BOOFest - A Weekend of Ghost Stories

A partnership which began with a single story-based weekend last March has blossomed into three popular events, the most recent of which will come to Second Life the first weekend in October. BOOFest – a celebration of stories best told around the blazing autumnal fire will feature a gathering of virtual story presenters and their spooky and scary best Saturday, October 1 from Noon to 4pm, and Sunday, October 2 from 10am to 2pm, and 3pm to 5pm – all times SLT.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: AVATAR REPERTORY THEATER presents THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

A doctor, a parson and a judge go into a bar... will they remember the punch line? Will the lecherous Falstaff bed the luscious Alice and Meg before their husbands catch him? Fighting for the hand of rich pretty Anne are a penniless aristocrat, a wealthy idiot, and a rapier wielding Frenchman - will the parson die?  Come see Shakespeare as only Avatar Repertory Theater plays it in three parts on three Fridays, September 9 through 23 in Avatar Repertory Theater’s new performance space on Cookie.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: Shakespeare Goes Tropical!

Just when you thought that the summer’s theatrical offerings on the grid had come to a conclusion, here’s once last chance to experience some great performances in that fine old tradition of the outdoor summer production.  Fruit Island Events, The Seanchai Library, and the StoryFest Events group will present Bard on the Virtual Beach in two different performances, Saturday August 20^th at 3:00pm and Sunday, August 21^st at Noon.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: Stories are Alive for the Telling!

"The Storyteller" Dogstar telling tales.

“Everything is a story. What is there but stories?  Stories are the only truth . . . we had power over our own stories.  We shaped our world as we wished it to be. It was our glory.”     

-“Gian Hen Gian” from Christopher Moore’s Practical Demonkeeping.

A bit over a month ago I heard a story presentation by someone I had not heard before.  Dogstar was billed in SL Events at “The Storyteller” which drew me right away.  In the air breathing world you will hear it said that the art of storytelling is dying, and I doubt you will find places outside of children’s sections of libraries and some upper crust bookstores where literature (stories in perpetua) are read aloud to an audience.  Dogstar was performing to a standing-room-only crowd of nearly twenty avatars: adult human, kid avis, furries.  His vocal presentation was strong and dynamic.  He used affects discretely to enhance his story: when he told of gruel overflowing a pot it did so, spilling in amongst the audience; when he told a story involving goblins and a puppy which had a repeating sequence as many traditional tales do, illustrated images appeared to support the action.  As I looked around I wondered, where all these people had come from?  I thought of them sitting in homes at or near computer screens, with headsets or speakers on.  I wondered what had brought them to this?

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: Virtual Short Play Buffet Concludes this Weekend

This is the closing weekend of Avatar Repertory Theater's Virtual Short Play Buffet.  For lovers of theater, art, writing, and good stories told well, this is something you should not miss.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: A.R.T. Serves Up A Gourmet Feast of Theater!

MadameThespian Underhill and Darius Debruyere in Back Burner

I admit it.  I put down the big article I have been working on for weeks on Stories in Second Life because I went to the theater this afternoon.  It was the virtual theater, and Avatar Repertory Theater’s (A.R.T.) opening weekend of their Virtual Short Play Buffet.  A.R.T. promotes the performance with this phrase: “Life is a banquet, and so is theater. Put on your best bib and tucker and join the Avatar Repertory Theater as we present a seven course meal of full productions of the seven winning plays from the Virtual Short Play Buffet.” They were not kidding!  If you love theater, good stories, good writing, and excellent performances – this is a must see.  Do not wait.  Do not delay.  Put the reminder in your pda, your Outlook, whatever will beep annoyingly at you and remind you to “GO!  GO NOW!”  There are four more performances left over the next two weekends.  Plan ahead, get your seat early.  Expect there to be capacity crowds because this is excellent theatre in any universe, and the word is bound to spread fast.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: A.R.T. Announces Finalists and Virtual Short Play Buffet Performances Caledonia Skytower Reporting...

The Avatar Repertory Theater announces the final seven plays selected by vote of the audience and company from the 30 presented in readings through March, April, and May.  They proclaim,"Life is a banquet, and so is theater. Put on your best bib and tucker and join the Avatar Repertory Theater as we present a seven course meal of full productions of the seven winning plays from the Virtual Short Play Buffet."  I am definitely getting my fork!

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: A.R.T. Announces Auditions for "Alice"

AVATAR REPERTORY THEATER is auditioning for the lead role of Alice for their production of Alice Through the Looking-Glass which opens in November.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: New Ballet Company Presents " Swan"

Photo by Fae Varriale

Now I can add dancing to horseback riding, sky diving and a few other things I have done in SL that I would have never had the chance or ability to do in real life. I got involved with Swan as an opportunity to work with friend and fellow storyteller Dubhna Rhiadra, for whom I have great respect.  She asked me if I would narrate a collaborative story-dance piece she had been working on and I was honored to accept.  Then, at a rehearsal, I was asked if I would be so kind as to stand in for a missing member of the corps, and suddenly I became a virtual ballerina.  I truly became a part of Independent Ballet Company and their debut production of Swan which is now performing at venues around the grid.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: Project DIRECT Builds Vital Connections Between Educators

It is that season when mortar boards soar through the air, and thousands who once were students now declare themselves graduates. On the SL grid, a quieter commencement has taken place as a group of 20 educators from rural schools throughout Oregon (the real one) mark their first year as part of Project DIRECT.

Since November 2010, Second Life has been the major thrust of Project DIRECT (Distance Innovations for Rural Educators using Communication Technologies), a program within the Oregon Writing Project, which is part of University of Oregon’s Center for Advanced Technology in Education. The goal of this program is to enhance the abilities of participating teachers to integrate technology into their practices and their classrooms.     

The picture above only looks like a “kumbaya” circle.  The educators participating in this first class of Project DIRECT quickly turned their once monthly initial commitment into weekly Wednesday sessions of networking and resource sharing.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: Artists and Authors Gather To Raise Awareness May 25th – International Missing Children Day

Every day, every year children become victims of crimes at the hands of those who should be caring for them, at the hands of strangers, or in the midst of fleeing from one perceived evil they stray into the hands of another that injures them, or even may cause their death.  International Missing Children’s Day is a worldwide annual event to raise awareness and provide information on these issues as well as to provide links for further information and help. International Missing Children's Day is celebrated on May 25, the same day as the United States' National Missing Children's Day designated by Ronald Reagan in 1983.

On May 25^th, artists, musicians, and authors will gather in in Second Life® at the Garden for Change to commemorate this day in the virtual world - promoting awareness and advocacy in a multi-national, multi-lingual effort. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Garden%20for%20Change/128/128/2

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: The Fruit Islands Embraces Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland May 7th & 8th

All in the golden afternoon
Full leisurely we glide;
For both our oars, with little skill,
By little arms are plied,
While little hands make vain pretense
Our wanderings to guide. . .

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:
Thus slowly, one by one,
Its quaint events were hammered out--
And now the tale is done,
And home we steer, a merry crew,
Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! a childish story take,
And with a gentle hand
Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's withered wreath of flowers
Plucked in a far-off land.

Lizzo Dreamscape is one of the best Events Coordinators in the Virtual World.  This is not a subjective opinion, this is fact.  Lizzo manages events for the Fruit Islands – an estate with 115 sims and the biggest private sea in SL.  There are more than 40 public sims to enjoy in the estate: diving, golf, horseback riding or surfing. It is a handful for the most talented events manager with daily events, like concerts, sailing lessons, ballet, art expos and film festivals. Only someone with Ms. Dreamscapes skill and talent could manage a schedule this bold and weave together a Wonderland themed weekend chocked full of diverse activities: Literature, Music, Dance, Art.

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SL ARTS & LITERATURE: Prim Perfect Magazine Celebrates 4th Anniversary and New Headquarters

Photo by P.J. Trenton for Prim Perfect Publications

The SL Enquirer has a new neighbor in Costa Rica.  Prim Perfect Magazine has taken up residence on San Jose East on the quarter sim immediately to the north of SLE.  The magazine and its attendant publications is not a noob to the Second Life grid.  Sunday, May 1 they celebrated their 4th Anniversary with a four hour long party that included performances by DRUM, Ceci Dover, Joaquin Gustav, and Christopher135 Quan.  The enthusiastic gathering met the ultimate standard of all amazingly successful events in SL – it crashed the region.

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