Dr Thursday’s Medicine Show is a new cultural event for Whitstable, aimed at gathering interesting people together to encounter each other’s creativity.
Dr Thursday’s is, essentially, a salon. According to - ahem – Wikipedia, a salon is:
“… a gathering of intellectual, social, political, and cultural elites under the roof of an inspiring hostess or host, partly to amuse one another and partly to refine their taste and increase their knowledge through conversation.”
Historically, salons were a hotbed of radical discussion, lent privacy & intimacy by their closed surroundings. They were a place of safety, a forum in which ideas could be tested on sympathetic listeners without fear of prejudice or recrimination.
Dr Thursday’s Medicine show aims to update the salon by providing change and a little structure; however, it retains the spirit of the original salons, offering the sweet medicine of conversation to those who like to indulge.
How does it work?
Dr Thursday’s will be a forum for discussion amongst the creative community of Whitstable. It will be an opportunity for networking and reflection, debate and intrigue.
Each month, a handful of creative artists will be invited to be our conversationalists, leading discussions on an element of their work – for example, a new project, a particular fascination, concern or obsession, a reflection on a recently-completed piece or a favoured methodology.
However, this will not be a lecture or a reading. At Dr Thursday’s, each audience member is a vital part of the whole. In fact, we do not have audience members but salonniers, active participants in the conversations, offering their insights, questions, examples and experiences to the mix. The conversations will take place in small groups, with salonniers moving between different conversations across the course of the evening, encountering a range of topics, people and ideas.
In between, there will be that essential social lubricant – no, not alcohol (although perhaps a little), but music, courtesy of DJ Moogaloo, who will charm & delight us with his exotic sounds.
Are there any rules?
Not really – well, maybe a few.
Dr Thursday’s in unfunded, and run as a hobby – a diversion, if you will – by authors Peggy Riley & Katherine May. Please respect their time & effort, and be nice to them. They’ll, most likely, be nice back.
Please buy a programme when you arrive, which will be priced only to cover our costs. Please take part – it’s not a salon without salonniers. And, please, respect the original salon principles of politesse, civilité and honnêté. In modern parlance, don’t feed the trolls.
Please, also, join the conversation via our blog (http://drthursdaysmedicineshow.blogspot.com) or our Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/drthursday).
If you would like to become a conversationalist in a future salon, please email us at drthursdays@gmail.com, explaining what you would like to talk about in 50 words or less, bearing in mind that we can’t pay you. Sorry.
