Baby Steps

Is there anything in the artistic world more daunting than a blank piece of paper?

For my money? No sir.

And a (several large) blank piece(s) of paper is what faced us at the first (almost) full meeting of Team Infinite Perspectives.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Like any good bank heist, folks were brought on board for a reason (or in my case the late date and lack of other options)

Travis: Your current narrator - a performer
Martin: The Director
Dewey: The Writer
Austin: The Stage Manager - Keeper On Task
Ileana: Performer (and reputed Sound Goddess)
Clay: Performer

For the first (almost) full meeting we were all present save Ileana (Who I am assured is legendary, but not mythical).

Martin installed 2+ walls full of butcher paper, Clay installed a newly resurfaced vintage card table and chairs and we set off to vanquish the blank page.



As a group, but not a company, there are some loose connections amongst folks (except for me of course) but no previous experience creating together.
So there are no vocabulary shortcuts we can take, we need to learn each other's strengths and predilections on the fly. To start at the very beginning, a very good place to start (unless of course you only have twelve weeks).

The First Words

Martin led us in a discussion of what we considered to be our formative theater experiences, favorite performances, and loves in theater to get an idea of what moved us as artists.

Which tended group-wide to be non-traditional experiences:

For myself I began with my love of manipulating an audience.
I shared the tense moments at the end of a college production of Jeffrey I directed at the University of New Hampshire, waiting for the applause, sweating through the silence, only to realize that they were too busy crying to clap just yet.

I then talked about a performance by the Neo-Surrealists at the San Francisco Fringe Festival. A performer clad in nothing but his clown makeup and a Hefty bag shares his Last Hershey Bar with the audience silently, piece by piece. Upon running out of chocolate he then hands the next audience member the wrapper, and the next his (now sweaty) garbage bag.
Now totally naked and bereft of anything to give, the clown begins removing his makeup with is fingertips and badging the faces of the rest of the audience.
Watching an audiences reaction to this performance is astounding, as they move from laughter, to pity, to horror and discomfort, to an acceptance or even pride in the badging.

Not to disrespect the others but only a sampling as I don't remember their formative experiences as well as my own:

Martin talked about a variety of experiences, primarily guerrilla theater and street theater, that had really excited him. He spoke of a love of non-traditional spaces, and concurred with my enjoyment of audience manipulation (though he leaned Brecht to my Spielberg). He spoke of his respect for Peter Brook's process of creation which he had witnessed several years ago in Australia in one of Brooks touring productions.

Dewey talked about the lack of exposure in general in South Dakota, and later about his love of his Grandfather's barbershop quartet which toured the area. About how hearing them sing, and seeing them perform stoked his love of music, and made him curious about performing and performance.

Clay spoke on his love for street theater and happenings.

Austin talked about his work with a dance company and the love of the aesthetic that grew out of that.

Ileana said, "............"

The next steps:



The Spark.

That which we expected to narrow our scope was instead a mammoth, unconnected swath of thinking. So we began brainstorming the concepts. Mars especially seemed to dominate because it is a specific place. We also listened a bit to some of the songs included in the Spark packet (Gang of Four, Pere Ubu, Orange Juice, The Human League, others).

Love Music Mars Love Music Mars Love Music Mars Love Music Mars.

And what is theater?
And where in history do we want this to take place?
Do we want it to be linear? Non-Linear? A-Linear?

How do we turn the limitations on sets and props (where limitations = you can't have any) into an advantage?
How can we manipulate the space to manipulate the audience?
Do we want to use projections? How?

You know, little questions.

12 Weeks.