Archive for the 'Viral theatre' Category

“Critical Report from the World Fringe Congress” to hit Europe’s Fringes!

Wednesday, August 6th, 2014

When infringement festival founder Donovan King was invited to the first-ever World Fringe Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, he thought there had been a mistake! After being kicked out of the Montreal Fringe Festival in 2001 for criticizing a corporate sponsor, King has made a point of crusading to protect Fringe Festivals from excessive corporate interference in order […]

Occupy Movement puts Theatre Activism in the spotlight!

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Occupy Wall Street has put theatre activism into the spotlight like never before. Conceptualized by Vancouver-based Adbusters Magazine, the Occupy Movement kicked off on September 17 by taking over New York City’s Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street in Manhattan. The initial encampment consisted of a small tent-city, including everything from kitchens to libraries to performances spaces […]

OTL offers seven infringement festival projects!

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Optative Theatrical Laboratories is proud to announce seven unique theatrical projects for the 2011 Montreal infringement festival. Traditional favourites like Car Stories will appear alongside Red Light District and Greening Montreal walking tours (including an ecological picnic), a birthday party to celebrate Cultural Resistance, a screening of our new film “Global Invisible Theatre”, plus a new theatre experiment […]

Artists hail victory in battle for Café Cleopatra!

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Artists are crying “Victory” in the Quartier des Spectacles after winning a David vs. Goliath battle that pitted powerful corporate interests against local artists at the Café Cleopatra, a popular burlesque venue and centre for alternative arts. Café Cleopatra hails from another era and symbolizes the city’s once thriving Red Light District. Situated within “The […]

Infringement season is upon us! Collaborators welcome!

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

The infringement season is upon us, and it is looking to be a red letter year for the global network of festivals!  With four unique infringement festivals on offer in both Canada and the USA, it is going to be a great summer for both infringers, new and old, and audiences seeking daring and authentic arts! The […]

Artists still waiting for box office cash – 10 years after being kicked out of the Fringe!

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

This month marks the 10th anniversary of OTL’s infamous CAR STORIES show getting ejected from the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival, and already the media are taking note of this disturbing milestone. The story is one of the most recounted in Montreal’s anglophone theatre community – it is the story of unethical corporate interests steamrolling artists at what […]

GOP tries to co-opt the culture jam with a tea party

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

With the Tax Day Tea Party, it looks like Fox News and the Republicans have now embraced a form of activism: the theatrical culture jam.  Now co-opting activist tools for corporate purposes is nothing new, in fact stealth marketers have been doing it for years, but using an activist technique to bolster a right-wing message […]

Rachel Corrie’s words are still with us

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Six years ago this past Monday, 23-year-old Rachel Corrie, who grew up in Olympia, Washington and traveled to the Gaza Strip as a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer as she defended the home of a Palestinian pharmacist in Rafah.  Her memory, though, seems like […]

Infringing this summer

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

So what’s the Montreal infringement festival going to be like this year?  Good question! While the infringement may have been mentioned several times on this blog already and anyone who knows OTL has heard of the festival, we have never really discussed it in any detail in this space.  The sixth consecutive edition of the […]

Cars, stories and people

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Of all the projects OTL has created, Car Stories is most certainly the longest-running, at times has been the most controversial and if it wasn’t for the infringement Festival, a true viral phenomenon, it would undoubtedly be the best known. In a nutshell, Car Stories is a play containing several shorter plays, a piece of […]