Havel to Direct his First Film

Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright and former president, will direct his first movie based on his most recent play, 'Leaving'. His first new script in twenty years, the story is about a politician's adjustment to normal life after leaving politics. Sources predict his wife, Dagmar, for whom he wrote the script, will play the female lead. The play premiered in May 2008 at the Archa Theatre in Prague.

Performing Revolution - Arts Under Communism

"A performing arts festival marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, presented by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in partnership with key New York City cultural organizations and academic institutions, November 2009–March 2010." Read about it here.

It's Me Down There

The Internationalists and IPAN present

An English Language Reading of

It’s me down there (En bas c’est moi)

Written by Sébastien Joanniez

Translated by Simon Pare

Performed by Doug Howe

Thursday 18 June 2009 at 18:30

Le Cavern Club (Downstairs)

21 rue Dauphine Paris 6éme

Métro : Odéon / Pont Neuf

Submissions for The Madness & Arts Festival

The Madness & Arts Festival (MAF) is an international and interdisciplinary festival on arts and madness, to be held in Haarlem, the Netherlands in 2010. You are kindly invited to submit your projects for consideration of the programme committee. The MAF is specifically looking for music, theatre and dance performances for the festival venues and smaller events/performances/presentations for the festival camp.

What = MAF
The Madness & Arts Festival (MAF) is a reoccurring international and interdisciplinary manifestation about art and madness, which will be held in Haarlem, the Netherlands in 2010, after Toronto, Canada (2003) and Münster, Germany (2006). The festival focuses on the interaction between art and madness, through presentation of high quality art with an international appeal. MAF gives stage to different perspectives from people with and without a psychiatric background, artists, scientists and the public. With an ambitious and inspiring programme of nationally and internationally renowned artists and projects, MAF aims to bridge the gap between art and its traditional audience, and various aspects of psychiatry. MAF will be a compact, high quality festival with international appeal.

MAF will take place from September 24th until October 3rd, 2010. 

New Immigration Rules Threat to British Arts

Read this article about the new immigration rules in the UK that pose a tremendous threat to international touring arts in the country.  

"The visa controls are part of the new points-based system for immigration. The rules for touring artists, which came into force in November, include a requirement for each artist to show £800 of savings, and financial support and constant monitoring by a “sponsor” to make sure that they do not abscond during their visit. Artists must apply for the visa in person, supplying biometric data and a digital picture. That has proved difficult in Africa in particular, with artists being told to travel to countries where biometric equipment is available to obtain their visas."

Transmediale & Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2010

Deadline: July 31, 2009
Info & submission: www.transmediale.de/en/call2010-main
Transmediale and CTM (club transmediale) are inviting submissions to the "Transmediale Award Competition 2010" and the "Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2010". Invited are art works, projects and positions that respond to the challenges of our rapidly changing digital, technological and networkred cultures. The "transmediale Award" seeks innovative, experimental and visionary works across a wide scope of form, process and practice that embrace, question and enrich our understanding and relationship to our immersed media and technologically driven society. Entries that exemplify new and critical forms of digital expression and interaction are encouraged, as are works from countries and regions in which digital art and culture are emergent.

Cabaret Without Borders - London

London, UK 
"Cabaret Without Borders" - Talks and Performances for Free Movement
Date: June 3, 2009 
Location: Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES
Info: www.manifestoclub.com
The Manifesto Club, Artsadmin and A Foundation present: "Cabaret Without Borders" - talks and performances against the Home Office’s new controls on visiting artists and academics to the UK. This is part of the Manifesto Club's summer events series, Freedom Summer. This will be a convivial evening of satirical artistic interventions, passionate political rhetoric and personal testimonies at the East London gallery, Rochelle School, celebrating free movement for all and opposition to the Home Office's new Visa controls for visiting artists and academics. 
Participating artists: Harold Offeh, Susannah Hewlett, Mark McGowan, Cyril Lepetit, chanson diva Barb Jungr, author Maureen Duffy, poet and performance artist Anthony Howell, theatre director Tim Supple, activists/free thinkers Josie Appleton and Christian Michel and many more. Including testimonials and videos from invited artists who have felt the brunt of these regulations or were refused visas: Dmitri Vilensky (Russia), Poshya Kakil (Kurdistan-Iraq), Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)