Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall by Dayna McLeod

Performance
August 15, 20188:30pm, 9:00pm, 9:30pm, 10:00pm The Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen Street West, Toronto

“Great acoustics, but shitty seating.”
“Honestly, WHY? Just WHY?”
“The faint sounds of ovarian partying.”

Curated by FADO Performance Art Centre and co-presented with SummerWorks

You are invited to sing your favourite karaoke songs in this performative installation that examines vulnerability through the site of my body. Wearing headphones that contain your voice and requested karaoke song, this mix is wired via fifty-foot cable into my vaginal canal, which acts as the stage for the audience of my uterus. Other listeners are invited to eavesdrop on your performance through the flesh of my body via stethoscope.

Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall transforms the site of the theatre into a social space where an awkward karaoke party minus the amplified music shares the intimacy of the artist’s body as it is offered up as the venue where dialogue around the cultural and political expectations of bodies marked female and a critique of medical surveillance, reproductive rights and the aging Queer female body collide.

Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall is a durational performance. Audience members are asked to purchase tickets to arrive for a one-time slot but are welcome to stay until the end of the night.

Stay as long as you want!
Sing your favourite karaoke song for Dayna McLeod’s uterus!
Live at Uterine Concert Hall!

CREDITS
Curated by FADO Performance Art Centre
Co-presented with SummerWorks
Conceived and Performed by Dayna McLeod
Technical Direction by Adrien Whan
Attendants: Rhainnon Collett, Theo Gallant, Cara Spooner, Athena Trinh


THE GOLDEN BOOK
Pick up your copy of FADO’s ongoing pocket essay series, the Golden Book, at the performance. This time, the Golden Book has a blood-red cover in honour of Dayna’s performance. Essay entitled, From Specular to Speculative: Intimate Encounters @ Uterine Concert Hall by Alanna Thain contained within. Alanna is Director, Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; Director, Moving Image Research Laboratory; and Associate Professor, Department of English at McGill University.


This performance is part of the SummerWorks Presentations programming, offering you a snapshot of contemporary performance in 2018. A vital collection of theatre, dance, music, and live art works from across the country.

SummerWorks supports work that has a clear artistic vision and explores a specific theatrical aesthetic. It encourages risk, questions, and creative exploration while insisting on accessibility, integrity, and professionalism. This year’s eleven-day Festival (August 9-19, 2018) features over thirty unique projects as part of SummerWorks Presentations and SummerWorks Lab. New this year: we’re teaming up with an incredible group of arts organizations to bring you the SummerWorks Exchange, a new stream of the Festival that features artist workshops and professional development opportunities.

© Dayna McLeod, Uterine Concert Hall, Montréal, 2018. Photo Helen Simard.


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Performance
Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall by Dayna McLeod


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Books & Ephemera

Performance Yellow

This fragrance opens us to the question, has the show started? It's winter, the theatre is colder than the street and the room is filled with people and all their winter smells: wet faux leather, down, too much shampoo, and beer breath. The atmosphere is a trickster. Am I late, am I early?

Top Notes

yellow mandarin, mimosa

Middle Notes

honey, chamomile, salt

Base Notes

narcissus, guaiac wood, piss, beer