The Swallow-A-Bicycle Theatre Society
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Mission Statement
MISSION: Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre enriches the lives of artistic thrill-seekers by creating and presenting professional, innovative, site-specific theatre experiences that push boundaries in unconventional spaces. VISION: Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre is recognized as Calgary’s leading purveyor of fearless site-specific professional theatre. We challenge audiences to have new conversations with themselves and their surroundings.
About This Cause
"A playwright lives in an occupied country. He's the enemy. And if you can't live like that, you don't stay. It's tough. He's got to be able to take a whack, and he's got to swallow bicycles and digest them." - Arthur Miller, 1915-2005 Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre – at the time known as the “Swallow-a-Bicycle Performance Co-op” – was founded by Mark Hopkins and Charles Netto in 2006 in Calgary, Alberta. Around that time, Bubonic Tourist – a company dedicated to the creation and dissemination of innovative trans-disciplinary performance, in collaboration with an eclectic array of cutting-edge creators – ceased operations. Among other things, this meant the end of Mutton Busting, a festival of performance and visual arts that existed in parallel with the High Performance Rodeo for five years. Both Mark and Charles had been inspired and energized by Bubonic Tourist’s work. In its absence, they saw a gap in Calgary’s arts community: a place for outside-the-box artists to create wild performances. After a couple of initial efforts – a production called December Lullaby, appearances at the Calgary MultiArts Variety Show – Swallow-a-Bicycle approached Michael Green from One Yellow Rabbit about taking over the Motel Theatre during the 2008 High Performance Rodeo, in an attempt to recapture some of Mutton Busting’s energy. Motel wasn’t available, but Green suggested that in the absence of a theatre, Swallow-a-Bicycle should consider performing “everywhere else”. Freak Show, a sprawling performance tour through the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts in January 2008, marked the beginning of Swallow-a-Bicycle’s exploration of site-specific performance. Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre creates new work; notable examples include i-ROBOT Theatre, Death of the Freak Show and Eavesdrop: The Coffee Shop Show. It has presented other artists’ shows, such as Shortcut to Nirvana, The Flood, Lhasa: Land of the Gods, and The Opera Suicide. Over the years Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre has also presented workshops focused both on professional artistic development - Viewpoints, Neo-Bouffon, character mask, puppetry, social practice - and administrative development, such as grant-writing and marketing.