Filed under: Quality Live Performance
Last week I did something new with this project, thanks to the prodding and encouragement of my friends at EFTN and Wayne State University: I performed Appointment via Skype.
This kind of viral, open source, self-perpetuating thing is part of the big dream of Appointment, because it’s about making live art happen in offices with or without me (or ultimately, anyone who refers to himself as an artist.)
EFTN was in Detroit Rock City doing performances of their Appointment pieces, which they made with me this winter in Oslo and then brought to NYU in September (details about both of those trips are in posts below).
I had hoped to be there, but was in the middle of performing GATZ at The Public and couldn’t get away. The day before they did their showing, I got a call from Brendan McCall, the insanely talented and energetic leader of EFTN, asking if I’d try to do my own Appointment via Skype while theirs were going on live.
How could I say no? Jo and I put my son Harry to bed, finished dinner, and I logged in.
The piece I had made for the original round of Appointments I shepherded back in fall 2009 (see details in posts below) has something to do with a disgraced academic, and involves asking each viewer to read the piece to the next viewer. I figured it was worth a shot and since Wayne State would lend itself well to the situation, I had a professor there (Pegi Marshall, awesome) print out a copy of the script on their end, I uploaded some necessary audio“>necessary audio and we gave it a try. I had three appointments, and two of them did it for the next person. I sat back and watched.
What does this mean? Is the performer no longer necessary? Is this a revision of Grotowski’s essential ideal of “one performer, one audience member?” Could it have worked if I was not behind my computer in person, but was just transmitting a recording?
And what about this piece that is self-perpetuating? After it gets rolling, I didn’t even have to be there, because viewers could have just kept doing the script for each other in a loop. Is this a get-rich-quick scheme? Is this live performance without the performer? What is he on about?
Here are two photos, from my POV (Please ignore the messy desk. I don’t know who that belongs to). If anyone is reading this who was there, please feel free to add your thoughts.
Having just seen me perform my Appointment via Skype, Peter takes the bait and reads the text to Clark. The piece goes from mediated to live.
Clark and I discuss the Appointment he's just heard - he's in Detroit, I'm in Brooklyn.
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I was inspired by my friend and colleague´s post here, about his participation in “Appointment” at Wayne State University, that my group Ensemble Free Theater Norway did in Detroit on 26 October 2010.
I´ve known Aaron for a number of years, since we were both undergrads at NYU, and I´ve admired his indefatigable spirit. I do not only mean the many hats that he wears–actor, playwright, arts advocate, teacher–but also how he is constantly looking to develop the form of live performance. What does it mean? How is it evolving? What are established conventions or “habits” of performance, and what would happen if those boundaries were challenged, adjusted, removed?
“Appointment” is one example of Aaron´s answer to some of these questions. When I was Rektor of The International Theater Academy Norway (2008-10) in Oslo, I was delighted as well as honored that I could bring him over as a Resident Artist, to develop this work with my then-students (a number of whom appear in the YouTube clips that you see, which I filmed during our March 2010 performances at SOS Rasisme´s offices in downtown Oslo). Creative people like Aaron deserve time and space (and financial support) to develop their ideas, take chances, experiment, ask questions.
Now that I am with Ensemble Free Theater Norway, we´ve become a kind of “touring entity” for this Appointment Project. We´ve had the privilege to do it alongside Aaron´s NYU students in September, and to then perform at Wayne State University (Detroit) last month. Aaron and I are often discussing where we could bring this work next, and how we can share it with more communities.
Aaron´s instigation of Appointment is a novel way to refresh the notion of “collaboration”, and not just by his performance via Skype. He is creating new ways for us to consider authorship within our open source 21st century.
EFTN is delighted to join, collaborate, and/or represent some of Aaron´s creativity ingenuity, by doing “Appointment” in these various locations, and I am happy that I have had some resources to contribute to him as a colleague to develop his ideas further. I hope that other institutions and individuals take a chance on his theater for one project, as thus far audiences have unanimously found it intriguing, fascinating, fun, different. Isn´t that what live performance out to be?
Brendan
Comment by Brendan McCall November 3, 2010 @ 4:04 pmWhile I was teaching members of the Ensemble Free Theater Norway during their stay in Chicago last month, I was lucky enough to be invited to see their Appointment Projects before I returned to Los Angeles.
What a delightful experience! Theater for one? Revolutionary.
I was moved and amazed not only by the pieces themselves but also by how my mind worked to fill in the blanks and create my own narrative based on what I was seeing. The Appointment Project creates a platform for a truly interactive dramatic experience — an experience seldom achieved in live theater today.
Thanks, Aaron and EFTN for your work!
Comment by Amanda November 3, 2010 @ 6:47 pm