present: Dale, Jeff B., Barbara, Kevin
After some afternoon scrambling to meet some other day, some other time, we ended back at our usual time and place.
We warmed up with the Vocal Sequence, using phrases from Anne Bradstreet’s “The Author to her book.” [doc]
Then we explained what we were up to to Kevin, who has been unavailable on Wednesday nights. After some general discussion, Dale zipped home to print out the Bear & Rabbit tale that Jeff had posted in comments for last week’s session, and to bring the roll of white butcher paper.
Dale then shared an idea he had about “The Boy who was afraid of nothing.” He filled the floor with stretches of the white paper, then drew a boy/puppet on a piece. Nice beginning. He needed a middle, something with the idea of the boy wanting to learn to be afraid, perhaps a signpost figure who offers to teach him, ending up in his bed waiting for the promised vision. Perhaps a bear, a wolf, appear, and then… “There arose from beneath his bed a white, terrifying figure: a single white sheet. ‘What are you?’ stammered the boy, frightened to his core. ‘I am a blank sheet of paper,’ said the figure. ‘Fill me with something worthy.’ Scream. Blackout.”
Everyone else, in trying to understand what Dale was up to, played with paper, creating characters. Dale suggested that this story could be used near the opening as part of our Fear factor.
We then played with the Bear & Rabbit tale [pdf]. Jeff began to narrate and the rest of us jumped in Story Theatre style. We played it in a fairly cartoonish manner, until we got to the line where Buzzard takes the wounded Rabbit into a closed room. At the line “But soon the Rabbit is heard screaming in agony,” Dale (playing Rabbit) gave it his best shot, actually screaming in agony. The rest of the story continued in its cheery manner, right up until the final reveal.
We liked the direction it took. We discussed having the Buzzard twist remnants of the white paper into bones and fur for the reveal.
As a piece, it would fit into our material about self-delusion/hubris. Dale asked for everyone to write down a quick statement about something they were defeated by, or were afraid to attempt for fear of being “destroyed” by it, to be used in a quick montage to follow the Bear & Rabbit tale.
At that point it was time to quit.
NEXT: FEB. 25, 6:30, NSOD
- TEXTS: Old Man Wind [doc]; Bear & Rabbit [pdf]; new Bear material; Dale’s giraffe piece, nude performance piece
- PATHS: Vocal Sequence; Montage exercise; Contact Improv
- HOMEWORK:
- (Neo-Futurist scripts, always)
- material based on The List
- keep bringing in text, either randomly selected from one’s own library, or some online library like Forgotten Books; multiple sources OK; we’re dumping these in our box for use… somehow
- Montage assignment based on Structuring Drama Work
The others claimed to have worked through the nude performance piece while I was at home printing out Bear & Rabbit, but I do not believe them.
I had an idea while cleaning up: as part of the Conception part of the Creative Process, we can address the “Where do you get your ideas from?” question with the giraffe piece.
If I scan in the sort-of-creepy drawing from the front of the elementary handout that I used to create the giraffe piece, then Marc could create some kind of interesting video with it.
Ahem. We actually DID work the nude piece while you were gone, Dale. No lie. I thought it would be more fun if you completely missed out, since you’ve put this off for four weeks now.
So report.
[giggles nervously]
If I can change the subject for a moment, we actually read through the giraffe thing a couple of different ways. Among my favorite take-aways was Barbara’s “soothing (yet creepy)” ‘Assist as necessary’ delivery.
But first, the nude performance report. Then the giraffes.
Sorry to have missed the fun. Sounds like a fruitful gathering.
I think it was.
I just added a new website to the Resources page: The Visual Telling of Stories. Explore.
Barbara:
Byrne’s Euclid.
These sessions just get curiouser and curiouser. I sure wish I could be there.
We really ought to be videotaping them.
“Fill me with something worthy…”
I wasn’t prepared to explore those particular sexual anxieties, but why not…
Actually, in all seriousness, I appreciate Dale “talking to” my blog fantasy musings and associations with his notion of “the boy who was afraid of nothing.” I hope it doesn’t seem narcissistic to regard myself as “talked to.” We can all talk to each other this way, I hope.
Also, confession. You all know I have a penchant for insecure bellyaching. Here’s the latest issue I’m working through for the good of the order. I know what I want to do in our rehearsals; that is, I know the process I want to offer. And the prospect still fills me with dread. I don’t want to be a thinking presence. My goal is to inhabit expressive notions outside the bounds of our normative expectations for human behavior. I’m into offering big effects, often without an idea in my head of why or toward what end. I rely on watchers and co-participants to help make sense of it or isolate possibilities for elaboration. Is that indulgent and irresponsible? Often directions, for me, don’t come until I’m in the midst of some “indirection,” if then. I’m still worried that in spite of everyone’s evident goodwill, some of my antics will produce a few sideways glances and a concern for relevance. And I don’t want to banish such responses because that kind of aesthetic give and take with fellow artists is part of the process. I’m working through it.
And I’m also dealing with another FEAR connected with this. My extreme explorations are never intended to be solely solo. In my experience working in this way, the move into extremities is to get you ready for ENCOUNTERS. I was grateful for Dale’s encountering presence at an earlier rehearsal and our co-exploration of a few “unmediated” ideas. And I’m remembering how as he let me know he was involving himself, I was terrified. It is a kind of improvisational playing–it’s what I feel is the essence of this kind of exploration and also the most frightening aspect. You are in terra incognita and it’s hard to sort out the tensions at play. Where does genuine fear and distrust leave off and creative mystery begin? Can we ever separate those two realms of uncertainty. Again I worry about the sideways glances and the concern for relevance.
Yes, be pissed off at me. Who am I to try and anticipate and characterize how others might be responding? Like I said, I working through it. It’s my shit. I been away from this mode for a long time and I’m trying to rediscover the comfort of discomfort you need to work with it.
I cannot speak for others, but I am not only not glancing sideways, I am hoping for your displays. They are sources of delight, and I want a) more of them, and b) more engagement with them.
We’re all farting around here. No one is concerned with producing, not even I, the chart-maker and Apollonian guru. I just want to fill the chart. Dionysian waste is the order of the day. [See what I did there?]
And actually, the boy who was afraid of nothing fable was just a fable. It struck a chord with you because it strikes a chord with all creative types, and it was meant to. I win.
I will reserve my “sideways glances” for Dale.
As for Barbara and myself, we are present, we are committed. And we giggle at the idea that we could inspire fear in anyone. We’re just not that scary. And we carry nothing but good will for everyone involved.
Since there is no report forthcoming, and even if there is, I putting a recap/do-over of the nude performance piece on the agenda for next week.
Dale: …I win.
A shocking new development.
And I, too, invoke the Seagram’s Wine Cooler guys: thank you for your support. (Someone in some circle of our cyber Hell invoked them not too long ago.)
That is absolutely my last bellyache. (And it is, actually.)
I’m halfway through reworking “We’re Queer” into “We’re Frauds.” I’ll hold off on “We’re Bears” until we have a fuller sense of how we want to present ourselves in that avatar.
So if Marc can’t do Wednesdays until after Easter, when are we meeting? Any proposals? I guess Thursdays would be best for me. Is the studio even available then?
I haven’t given up subversive para-theatrical activities for Lent; I just have to sing in the choir this Wednesday night.
I’m assuming we’ll do just as always, and work until American Idol comes on.
Are we admitting that in a public space? Is our credibility shot?
Heh heh. He said credibility. Heh heh.
Credibility. We could fantasize about who are Audience is.
Also touches on our Theme.
We could fantasize about an Audience!
I’m not telling you guys what I’m going to fantasize about.
An audience. Pervert.
I’m, here, I’m here, both as an audience and a pervert!
Barb can’t make it tonight, and neither can Marc. Since it’s Ash Wednesday and all, should we just cancel? Pick it back up next week?
Who OUR audience is. Sorry. Isn’t somebody editing this shit?
No.
You told us that was against the rules.
Or was that me?
No editing leads to goood slips of the fingers. It just wanted to have a comment with shit in it.
I saw what you did there.
The “it” was an actual slip of the finger. You saw what “it” did there. It lives!