Greetings,
Thank you for your interest in participating in Sharon Hayes’ Revolutionary Love 2: I Am Your Best Fantasy, a public performance during the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Details of the Performance:
On September 1st during the Convention, approximately 70-100 people will speak a text about love, politics, gay power, and gay liberation, written by Hayes for the occasion. We are looking for volunteer performers to recite (as a chorus) a 10–15 minute text, repeated multiple times over a period of approximately two hours. The performance will take place in a public space in proximity to the Convention (we will send you more details once the site is confirmed). A copy of the text will be sent to you in the coming weeks.

About the Project:
Revolutionary Love 2: I Am Your Best Fantasy is the second in a two-part project by Hayes taking place at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. The first performance, which will take place at the DNC, is titled Revolutionary Love 1: I Am Your Worst Fear.
Revolutionary Love 2 is presented by Creative Time with the Walker Art Center and the UnConvention as part of Creative Time’s 2008 national public art initiative Democracy in America: The National Campaign. Engaging the past eight years of cultural production, activism, and resistance in the U.S., Democracy in America: The National Campaign offers platforms for artists to address the shifting nature of democracy in this country—from probing fundamental questions about the nature of war, freedom, justice, and the social contract, to encouraging open and public dialogue on timely issues from red states to blue, rural communities to urban centers, classrooms to town halls, and artists’ studios to public squares.
More information on Hayes’ project and Democracy in America is available at www.creativetime.org.

Commitment & Rehearsals:
As a participating performer, we are asking that you:

1. Attend one rehearsal to practice delivering the spoken text with other performers, to be held approximately 3-4 days before the performance and directed by Hayes. (Note: you will be given a choice of multiple rehearsal dates/times, and asked to attend the one that best fits your schedule.)
2. Memorize the 10-15 minute text in advance of the first rehearsal.
3. Agree to be recorded and depicted in video, sound, and photographic documentation of the project (you will be asked to sign an image release form).
   
   

Rehearsal dates and locations:

Fri. Aug. 29th 6-8pm at the Walker Arts Center, in the Walker Cinema - map, directions

Sat. Aug. 30th 11-2pm at the Walker Arts Center, in the Walker Cinema - map, directions

Sun. Aug. 31st 5-8pm at Bedlam Theater - map, directions

Performance date and location:

Mon. Sept. 1st at Capitol Ground green below Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard - map

* Shuttle buses will be provided. Buses will depart the Walker Art Center (near the mini golf park) at 12:00pm to the Capitol Grounds, at approximately 3:30pm the performance will begin.

Flyer:
You can help us get the word out there and get other people excited about the project. Please xerox and post or attach and spread as you see fit. We currently have a really good group of participants but it's always great to pull in some more. Can be friends, relatives, lovers, colleagues or strangers! You can find a downloadable PDF of the flyer here.

About the Artist:
Sharon Hayes has produced challenging work in performance, video, and installation for over a decade. Staging protests, delivering speeches, and organizing demonstrations, she creates interventions that highlight the friction between collective activities and personal actions. Employing the artistic and academic methodologies of theater, film, anthropology, linguistics, and journalism, Hayes has made work that engages history, politics, and public space. She was an artist in PERFORMA05 and her work has been shown at the New Museum, P.S. 1/MoMA, Art In General, Artists Space, Parlour Projects, Andrew Kreps Gallery, Dance Theater Workshop, Performance Space 122, the Joseph Papp Public Theater, and the WOW Café in NYC. In addition she has shown at the Tate Modern in London, Museum Moderner Kunst and the Generali Foundation in Vienna, at many other national and international exhibition spaces, as well as in 45 lesbian living rooms across the United States. Her collaborative piece, 9 Scripts from a Nation at War, showed in Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany this past June.
For more information on Hayes’ work, please visit www.shaze.info.

About the Partners:
Creative Time is a New York City–based nonprofit public arts organization that has presented innovative art for the past three decades. www.creativetime.org.
The Walker Art Center, a catalyst for the creative expression of artists and the active engagement of audiences, examines the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, cultures, and communities. www.walkerart.org.
The UnConvention is a non-partisan collective of citizens who have come together to create a free and democratic forum as a counterpoint to the highly scripted nature of the contemporary presidential nomination process.  Its mission is to umbrella the myriad artistic and educational activities (exhibitions, lectures, performances, etc.) during the lead-up and staging of the 2008 Republican National Convention and to host the alternative media that will converge on the Twin Cities during the Convention. www.theunconvention.com.

Next Steps:
If you are still interested, please submit the following information:

Following receipt of your message, we will be in touch to confirm the details of your participation.

Artist Talks:
You are invited to attend talks by Sharon Hayes discussing this project during the Convention in September. Dates, times, and locations are coming soon.

Questions?
Please contact us at rnc@creativetime.org or 212.206.6674 x214

Thanks once again for your interest in being a part of this incredible project. We look forward to hearing from you again soon.

Sincerely yours,

Sharon Hayes
and Gavin Kroeber (Producer, Creative Time)