Bluemouth inc. was created in the spring of 1998 when four artists from different artistic disciplines came together through a shared interest in developing hybrid performance. The collective’s first piece was entitled MAPPING CURRENTS for the Edgy Women Festival at Studio 303 in Montreal. The project established the company’s mandate toward the collective creation interdisciplinary performance works. This piece was followed by a performance of SPIRAL at the 1999 Montreal Fringe Festival and CEASEFIRE in a park in the plateau region of Montreal during the 2000 Montreal Fringe Festival. The park location was particularly important because it established an important addition to the company’s mandate: to focus upon the development of site-specific work.

In the fall of 2000, bluemouth inc. relocated to Toronto and immediately produced AMERICAN STANDARD at Bar Code on College Street in December. This move represented a significant shift in the collective’s growth because two of the original members stayed in Montreal and were replaced in Toronto by a sound designer and a filmmaker. AMERICAN STANDARD was followed by a performance installation at The Gladstone Hotel entitled LENZ, in May of 2001. The company began to become recognized for it’s unique style of engaging audiences in intimate and unusual settings. Then in the summer of 2001 we participated in The Summer Works Festival with a remount of CEASEFIRE. In December of the same year, bluemouth inc. was commissioned by The Theatre Centre to create a short film for Body Geometry. This triptych film installation was entitled PAS AVEC ESPOIR, PAS SANS ESPOIR and was presented at Theatre Passe Muraille and in 2002 was expanded upon to include a performance element for Projet Projo in Montreal.

Bluemouth inc. received its first project grant in 2002 to workshop a piece entitled SOMETHING ABOUT A RIVER. SOMETHING ABOUT A RIVER is a triptych, its three cycles taking place at three different sites along the buried Garrison Creek. The first of these three workshops was entitled THE FIRE SERMON and was presented at The Metro XXX Theatre. Around this same time bluemouth inc. received it’s incorporation status as a not-for-profit organization. Then in the fall of 2002, re-mounted LENZ at the Gladstone Hotel as part of FREE FALL. Bluemouth inc. also hosted a round-table discussion for the event, bringing together local interdisciplinary artist and invited guests. The purpose of this gathering was to discuss some of the difficulties facing the dissemination of interdisciplinary work across Canada. A result of this event was the creation of the Pan-Canadian interdisciplinary website www.popstart.ca. The second workshop of SOMETHING ABOUT A RIVER was entitled DEATH BY WATER and took place in the winter of 2003 at Trinity Bellwoods Park. Small groups of viewers were transported by rickshaw from a funeral parlor to the park, where they watched an outdoor performance from inside a wooden shed. In August the third and final part of the river trilogy, WHAT THE THUNDER SAID was presented at the 2003 Summerworks Festival. That same month we received an Ontario Arts Council to present the entire SOMETHING ABOUT A RIVER TRILOGY. In the following November the company completed our most ambitious endeavor to date by presenting the five hour performance of SOMETHING ABOUT A RIVER over three different location across downtown Toronto. This production was nominated for 6 Dora Awards, and received the award for Outstanding Independent Production.

Bluemouth Inc.’s most recent project is THE MEMORY OF BOMBS which was initially developed through an on-going residency at the Theatre Centre (Toronto), and work-shopped as part of the Toronto Summerworks Theatre Festival.