Flying House is airborne
It was as if a large bus made out of foam rubber blindsided me while I was standing on the roadside waiting for it to arrive. I knew it was coming, just didn’t realise how fast it was travelling and I was left picking myself up in a daze as it sped on down the road loaded with nimbler passengers holding their tickets to tangible funding and commitments in their deserving hands.
That bus was the launch of the Flying House Performing Arts Stock Exchange, a possibly unique venture by a group of Jo’burg based theatre practitioners who are creating a “permanent resource sharing hub serving the performing arts community”. Essentially, a platform to create and facilitate collaboration amongst artists, technicians, administrators, funders, producers etc.
The Performing Arts Stock Exchange which took place at Museum Africa last night (Wednesday) signalled the launch of Flying House (registering as an NPO) and involved people trading their skills, auctioning resources and pitching ideas to a “Dragons’ Den” of eight influential individuals such as National Arts Festival artistic director Ismail Mohamed, creative director of the Hillbrow Theatre Gerard Bester, UJ Arts and Culture head Ashraf Johaardien, Assitej SA director Yvette Hardie, and so on.
People were invited to list their skills as ‘stock’ available to buy or trade (the obvious such as lighting, performing, photographing but including skills such as accounting – productions need to work within a budget, babysitting – some artists do have children, rooms to rent during festivals) and there was a live trading floor and there were people selling experiences and performances. For instance you could buy ‘steps’ from dancer Athena Mazerakis (steps to transformation, steps in the right direction) or be lifted (physically) by physical theatre oke Craig Morris. I was planning on offering unusual photographic portraits but wasn’t nimble enough.
There was also a silent auction of services and resources donated by Flying House supporters, including a pair of underpants from Roberto Pombo of We Didn’t Come to Hell for the Croissants fame. The jury was out on whether to label the offer ‘Roberto’s cockpit’ or ‘striped landing’. It was a great mix of fun and sincerity and the 250 or so people who rocked up joined in the spirit of the event, although the only people who gave Morris’s lifting a go were former Rhodians. Funny that. Point being, this was no stand-offish cocktail party with deals going down on the side and snide remarks made on the fringes in a transparent show of superiority. I know, I wandered through the centre and the fringes all evening, scribbling indecipherable notes.
Thing is, because the core Flying House team are long-time friends and Rhodes University connections, I helped set up on Wednesday (so am well informed as to what it took to get this show on the road – a hell of a lot plus a wing and a prayer) but as I discovered, you can’t be both crew and participant. Well, perhaps you can but only if you’re much better at planning than I am. So when things got underway at 18.30, shit happened fast. The organised pandemonium of the trading floor erupted while I was still trying to organise batteries and chalk up some signage and put on a clean shirt. It didn’t take long to realise the best option was to surrender and let events flow on while I watched the incredible energy of transparent exchange happen all around the room, facilitated most ably by MC Tumi Morake who exhibited the panache to handle a Wall Street trading floor. In fact, following the #flyingstock twitter feed, there’s a few New York stock brokers now following @flyinghse. Wonder if they’ll be convinced to convert from capitalism to collaboration.
During the much-welcomed after-event wind down over beer, a friend who shall not be named suggested I’d got too used to the laid-back pace of Cape Town to deal with the freneticism of Joburgers. They might have a point. Yet despite my dazed state I did note that real deals worth thousands and tens-of-thousands of Ronds went down.
Cash and the possibilities for it were put up by ‘dragons’, although details are yet to ironed out. But when it comes to collaboration, cash is not always king, it is merely one element in a collection of commodities which include knowledge, physical space, networks, skills and opportunities.
Mwenya Kabwe’s proposal for a large-budget continent-wide collaboration for an immersive theatre experience in a large building, telling the story of Zambian school teacher Edward Mukuka-Nkoloso’s belief that Zambia would beat Russia and America in the space race, received Ismail Mohamed’s commitment to connect her with the SciFest decision makers and Gerard Bester offered the Hillbrow Theatre as a space for her to gather stories and input from artists from the continent who are based in Joburg. Yvette Hardie expressed interest in facilitating a scaled-down version of the production for the Assitej World Congress next year.
Similarly, Jessica Lejowa’s pitch for a production on children and the effects of war and violence received the offer of an 18-month residency at UJ from Ashraf Johaardien, as well as research support, development and dramaturgy.
Other commitments are being tallied at the moment but real deals went down while the wine ran out. Deals and connections and trades that would’ve taken weeks, months of missed emails and misunderstood cellphone calls and frustration and lonely tramping to broker were made in minutes thanks to Flying House getting everyone together on the floor.
The kiffest thing about it was this was only the beginning. This was the launch. This bus can cross a lot of boundaries, no passport required. Hitching a ride is a good idea. I’ll catch up soon soon.
Flying House core team are Tamara Schulz, Jenni-lee Crewe, Craig Morris, Khutjo Green, Athena Mazarakis and Madeleine Lambert. List your stock and watch developments on www.flyinghouse.co.za
— Steve Kretzmann