8/13 Reflections on Alternate ROOTS
I just attended the Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting, held every year here in Asheville--but the first time I've attended. Otrabanda was one of the founding theatre companies in this network, which is now devoted mainly to community-based artists & companies, something I find myself more interested in than in the past. Anyway, I met two old Otrabanda New Orleans friends: MK Wegman, who was Don Marshall's assistant at the Contemporary Arts Center, who runs the National Performance Network out of New Orleans (she's still there). It was terrific to see her. I also attended a workshop about Katrina stories and spoke briefly with John O'Neill; I mentioned Otrabanda, and he asked where everybody was now. At the moment, he's part of a group of Gulf Coast artists performing an evolving piece called "Uprooted: The Katrina Project". It was quite a performance, especially John's role. I also mentioned Otrabanda in a group which included Linda Parris-Bailey, who directs the Carpetbag Theatre, a company that has been in Knoxville for a long time and who I knew nothing about till recently (shame on me). Her eyebrows went up: "Oh, Otrabanda". Which was nice. Her group is involved in something they call the Digital Story Project: they teach kids (and adults) how to use digital content to create documents telling their stories, working with the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley. I went into their studio at this gathering and there were TEN MACBOOK PRO COMPUTERS with teenagers on them going at it! They got a terrific grant (don't know who from) for good equipment. Linda said the project was a natural outgrowth of their performance work, which involves gathering stories from the community, and that they were using more digital content in their own live performances, too, naturally. Very interesting.
------------------
Here's a bit of a breakdown on who else I met and what else I saw:
Jump-Start Theatre, out of Austin:
I attended a workshop led by S.T. Shimi, co-Artistic Director. Missed the warm-ups (think they were Viewpoints-related) and observed one and participated in two exercises in creating performances using Anne Bogart-style techniques.
1) solo: given sheet of text selections and asked to pick one or fragment of one; instructions were to de-construct the text in some way (what that means to you), choose performance spot, use piece of clothing in unusual way, take 10 minutes to create and 1 minute to perform.
2) duo: same text sheet, pick two pieces but one had to be by George Bush (helped to limit choices), list of instructions included travelling, rhythm, one element of earth/air/fire/water, fall down, reversal, 2 languages, something silly, 20 minutes to prepare, 2-3 minutes to perform; worked with African-American performer (don't remember his name); we worked well together, had fun performing it.
3) ensemble: instructed to put three duo pieces together in some way; 15 minutes to prepare; extremely difficult though all trying hard to collaborate well--not successful outcome but informative.
Used the "critical response" way of talking about work, but without final step of "what to work on" (my words); I'll use the system but wanted to ask about missing step. Very, very useful work. Obvious, but reminded me that this is how I can begin my FYS work with students.
[Liz Lurman's Critical Response system (check JumpStart's website): 1) What worked, what did you like; 2) What questions do performers have for spectators; 3) What questions do spectators have for performers (careful to make them real, neutral questions); 4) suggestions for improving. To avoid repeating comments, group signals agreement with a comment usually by snapping fingers.]
------
Carpetbag Theatre (Knoxville) and Center for Digital Storytelling (Berkeley):
Talked to Linda Parris-Bailey and Marques Rhyne from Carpetbag and Andrea Spagat and Gail Nicholls-Ali from CDS; observed them working with teenagers on laptops who were on day 2 of creating their video pieces using Photoshop Elements and other applications (iMovie, I suppose, but also Final Cut Pro). Linda was eloquent about how the decision to go in this direction was a natural extension of what they've always done: help people in the community tell their stories. She said the company is working with digital content in their own live performance pieces, too. I was very impressed with Linda--she's obviously a powerhouse and Carpetbag was one of the original ROOTS companies. Silly not to have been in touch with them all this time--hope to get to Knoxville with students--they're hosting "Show What You Know" festival in October, bringing in other groups as well as showing local work. Check their website (http://www.carpetbag.org). CDS has a great "cookbook" online for doing this stuff (http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.pdf).
The process, which went on for five days, involved writing a script, making notes on the script about the kinds of images to use, recording a voiceover of the script, gathering images (scanned, from web, shot digitally) into "rough" folder, manipulating images in Photoshop, and then putting it all together: editing, animating, synching sound. Gail talked about the difference between "explicit" and "implicit" and the fact that images didn't need to reproduce explicitly what the words said. Good stuff.
The kid's work (shown Sat. night) was all terrific, but some of them really got creative about digital/audio manipulation and coordination. Later Gail told me she had meant to tell the audience something along the lines of how we don't have to worry about the future if we can just turn these kids loose with the right tools.
-------
Sat in on meeting of our local ROOTS region (NC, TN, KY). Lots of talk about need for communication and getting to each other to support the work. I suggested Stoneleaf (my big mouth). I find myself wondering about the organization, if it has--as Cohen-Cruz indicates in her intro to "Performing Communities"--somewhat lost direction. So much emphasis on praise and support is absolutely necessary, I know, but seems like there can be criticism, too (I was around far too little to get a real sense of the overall dialogue).
--------
Listened to a fascinating presentation ("Interventions and public gestures") by Rajni Shah, a London-based performance artist. Most exciting event I attended (for me) because she was addressing exactly the issues I'm interested in regarding the "intersection of art and activism" (slogan of ROOTS) with an emphasis on the formal aspects of the art. She showed a video of one of her pieces, which took place in a gallery-like space--not the direction she wants to go, and then she talked about a number of U.K. performance artists doing interesting work. She gave a handout with several listed:
The Lab of Insurrectionary Imagination (Lab of ii). Many videos online (13 Experiments of Hope) of work by Richard Dodomenici, Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, Lab of ii, Yomango, The Permanent Assembly Against War, etc. She also gave me a hard copy of an absolutely fascinating article that I think is on their website: "In the Footnotes of Library Angels: A Bi(bli)ography of Insurrectionary Imagination" -- just loaded with references to other articles, etc., and terrific in its own write.
Rajni then asked if we wanted to imagine (and perhaps perform) "interventions" of our own. She gave us each a piece of paper and asked us to write or draw something we'd like to see during the Annual Meeting. Then she had us fold them in an interesting way of our choice and put them in a hat; we picked one out (not our own), looked at it, and then were asked to describe something it suggested to us that we'd like to do (possible or impossible). Then, after this process, she gave us some of her criteria for an intervention:
An intervention should: 1) be at heart a gift; 2) be something you believe in, and also challenge your usual way of working; 3) open a window to change without imposing any particular viewpoint or argument; 4) respect the space and expression of others, seeking permission where appropriate.
She also noted that it's not necessary to always be joyous! It's ok to create disturbing images, which can be gifts as well (in response to the prevailing sense at this gathering, I think, to support, celebrate, affirm).
Great process. I became INTENSELY aware of my own sense of inhibition and fear of performing in this way. Interesting. Want to use it for class.
Finally, we went outside where [ ] (can't remember his name; teaches vaudeville at Swannanoa Gathering, but I don't know him) was doing an intervention: he was seated in an easy chair, apparently sleeping, hat pulled low over his eyes; on a table beside him, he had a sign: "Emergency Nap Intervention: Bush is still in the White House, Lennon is still dead, and I just want to sleep" (or something like that); "write a note giving me a reason why I should wake up," and he had a pen and post-it notes. People had written notes and stuck them to him. Example: a teen-age girl (apparently) wrote "Good Great Sex!" and stuck it on him.
-------
Walked out of a couple of things: one, what I thought would be a discussion of "the intesection of art and activism" started with asking the group to write words or pictures of "what freedom means to me" and speak, sing, or dance, or show. I thought, this is too dumb for me, and snuck out. Things like that.
---------
A "performance" where kids showed what they had been doing in an acrobatics workshop during the week. Human pyramids, swinging them up in the air and standing on supporting hands, that kind of thing. For some reason, it was intensely moving. It was performing at its best: children absolutely being there, proud, scared, excited, putting themselves on the line. It struck me as the best, most valid performance I had seen.
--------
A "story circle" workshop led by John O'Neill and the Katrina Project people, in which we were asked to break into small groups of 4 or 5 people, tell each other stories (could be about or not about Katrina, but they all had to do with our response to the disaster in some way) which weren't supposed to exceed 3 minutes, then take a minute to just look at each other and reflect on their stories, then a "cross-talk" session of responding to each others' stories, and finally 5 minutes to make a piece which somehow incorporated them. Some of the performances were interesting but none were amazing, of course; almost all seemed to involve moving in circles in some way (we spun in a group circle repeating phrases we had come up with in response to the stories); on involved individuals each coming to audience members and whispering something and bringing us onto the floor ("out of dark comes light; so move" what what I heard and repeated). Anyway, it was interesting but all pretty obvious--as how could it not be. Made me think (as I thought again during the Katrina performance that night) of the difficulty of performing a response to a cataclysm like that, and how it invites clichés which we hesitate to label as such. But I liked it.
--------
The closing evening performance session (Saturday night) took place in the chapel, a large rectangular space with folding chairs and a cement floor (with dance floor taped down). Some great stuff:
The children (and teens) being presented and doing some movement stuff--6 or 7-year-old leading a large group movement which included adults, the teens doing a movement and/monologue piece which was angry and angsty but fine, a couple of teens just presented and praised for working and leading.
A video presentation of all the digital stories created by the kids in the workshop. Many were very basic (though all impressive) and some more imaginative--but all were very effective and personal statements from the creator, real assertions of what was important. One funny and effective one: the young woman (all had voice-overs of the creator telling the story) told of all the accidents that had happened to her, some life-threatening, some not, and after each one she would say--and the words would be superimposed--"I know I'm here for a reason." The "reason" could be anything or something she didn't know yet, but it was good.
Two young white women (in the 20s?) performed outside during intermission. They seemed to be visitors, not connected with a group or even ROOTS but doing childcare. Anyway, they danced with flaming torches while friends drummed and sang (I joined in on "Aiko Aiko") and managed not to set their long hair or scanty costumes on fire--quite professional and accomplished, actually. When I got back to my seat, they guy next to me said wryly, "Well, every group should have its sprites," which captured it exactly.
A performance of several dance numbers by the teenage dance company Moving in the Spirit (which sounds religious but isn't as far as I can tell). Four women, all very good and two outstanding. Many of the pieces were "modern dance" with the kind of aesthetic abstract movement that implies and which I don't particularly care for, but one of the pieces (which was created for adults and then set on--and changed by--these dancers) was done with 4 chairs and was amazing, just amazing: sharp, angular, angry, surprising, difficult, stunning. Very little of the "dancey" stuff. About Southern women who are expected to smile and say "yes" all the time.
Finally, "Uprooted: the Katrina Project"--a performance by a group of 10 Gulf Coast artists which I believe was still evolving and which they were also touring. The project is supported by ROOTS. It was well-performed, and had moments of real power, as well as moments (speeches, movements) that were very clichéd. John O'Neill's character--dressed in a white seersucker suit and cloth cap and carrying a large umbrella, was very strong: mostly he just chuckled and laughed and crossed the stage very slowly, but in his one speech he introduced himself as "Legbah, or Baron Samedi" and said that when you were at the crossroads and had to make a decision to do something (or to do nothing, which is also a decision), well, there he'd be. That evil laugh.
-----------
A final thought: The most extraordinary thing for me was to be with a large group of people, artists, performers, most of whom were not white. And the fact that it seemed extraordinary spoke volumes to me about how circumscribed and impoverished my relatively segregated life is. I don't think "diversity" is a particularly helpful concept here, because it sounds like an ideal, something that's supposed to be good for you like organic food. I mean the sensation of life as thick instead of thin, viscous instead of watery, bumpy instead of smooth, and often loud and raucous instead of quiet and well-behaved. Gimme more of that.
------------------
Here's a bit of a breakdown on who else I met and what else I saw:
Jump-Start Theatre, out of Austin:
I attended a workshop led by S.T. Shimi, co-Artistic Director. Missed the warm-ups (think they were Viewpoints-related) and observed one and participated in two exercises in creating performances using Anne Bogart-style techniques.
1) solo: given sheet of text selections and asked to pick one or fragment of one; instructions were to de-construct the text in some way (what that means to you), choose performance spot, use piece of clothing in unusual way, take 10 minutes to create and 1 minute to perform.
2) duo: same text sheet, pick two pieces but one had to be by George Bush (helped to limit choices), list of instructions included travelling, rhythm, one element of earth/air/fire/water, fall down, reversal, 2 languages, something silly, 20 minutes to prepare, 2-3 minutes to perform; worked with African-American performer (don't remember his name); we worked well together, had fun performing it.
3) ensemble: instructed to put three duo pieces together in some way; 15 minutes to prepare; extremely difficult though all trying hard to collaborate well--not successful outcome but informative.
Used the "critical response" way of talking about work, but without final step of "what to work on" (my words); I'll use the system but wanted to ask about missing step. Very, very useful work. Obvious, but reminded me that this is how I can begin my FYS work with students.
[Liz Lurman's Critical Response system (check JumpStart's website): 1) What worked, what did you like; 2) What questions do performers have for spectators; 3) What questions do spectators have for performers (careful to make them real, neutral questions); 4) suggestions for improving. To avoid repeating comments, group signals agreement with a comment usually by snapping fingers.]
------
Carpetbag Theatre (Knoxville) and Center for Digital Storytelling (Berkeley):
Talked to Linda Parris-Bailey and Marques Rhyne from Carpetbag and Andrea Spagat and Gail Nicholls-Ali from CDS; observed them working with teenagers on laptops who were on day 2 of creating their video pieces using Photoshop Elements and other applications (iMovie, I suppose, but also Final Cut Pro). Linda was eloquent about how the decision to go in this direction was a natural extension of what they've always done: help people in the community tell their stories. She said the company is working with digital content in their own live performance pieces, too. I was very impressed with Linda--she's obviously a powerhouse and Carpetbag was one of the original ROOTS companies. Silly not to have been in touch with them all this time--hope to get to Knoxville with students--they're hosting "Show What You Know" festival in October, bringing in other groups as well as showing local work. Check their website (http://www.carpetbag.org). CDS has a great "cookbook" online for doing this stuff (http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.pdf).
The process, which went on for five days, involved writing a script, making notes on the script about the kinds of images to use, recording a voiceover of the script, gathering images (scanned, from web, shot digitally) into "rough" folder, manipulating images in Photoshop, and then putting it all together: editing, animating, synching sound. Gail talked about the difference between "explicit" and "implicit" and the fact that images didn't need to reproduce explicitly what the words said. Good stuff.
The kid's work (shown Sat. night) was all terrific, but some of them really got creative about digital/audio manipulation and coordination. Later Gail told me she had meant to tell the audience something along the lines of how we don't have to worry about the future if we can just turn these kids loose with the right tools.
-------
Sat in on meeting of our local ROOTS region (NC, TN, KY). Lots of talk about need for communication and getting to each other to support the work. I suggested Stoneleaf (my big mouth). I find myself wondering about the organization, if it has--as Cohen-Cruz indicates in her intro to "Performing Communities"--somewhat lost direction. So much emphasis on praise and support is absolutely necessary, I know, but seems like there can be criticism, too (I was around far too little to get a real sense of the overall dialogue).
--------
Listened to a fascinating presentation ("Interventions and public gestures") by Rajni Shah, a London-based performance artist. Most exciting event I attended (for me) because she was addressing exactly the issues I'm interested in regarding the "intersection of art and activism" (slogan of ROOTS) with an emphasis on the formal aspects of the art. She showed a video of one of her pieces, which took place in a gallery-like space--not the direction she wants to go, and then she talked about a number of U.K. performance artists doing interesting work. She gave a handout with several listed:
The Lab of Insurrectionary Imagination (Lab of ii). Many videos online (13 Experiments of Hope) of work by Richard Dodomenici, Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, Lab of ii, Yomango, The Permanent Assembly Against War, etc. She also gave me a hard copy of an absolutely fascinating article that I think is on their website: "In the Footnotes of Library Angels: A Bi(bli)ography of Insurrectionary Imagination" -- just loaded with references to other articles, etc., and terrific in its own write.
Rajni then asked if we wanted to imagine (and perhaps perform) "interventions" of our own. She gave us each a piece of paper and asked us to write or draw something we'd like to see during the Annual Meeting. Then she had us fold them in an interesting way of our choice and put them in a hat; we picked one out (not our own), looked at it, and then were asked to describe something it suggested to us that we'd like to do (possible or impossible). Then, after this process, she gave us some of her criteria for an intervention:
An intervention should: 1) be at heart a gift; 2) be something you believe in, and also challenge your usual way of working; 3) open a window to change without imposing any particular viewpoint or argument; 4) respect the space and expression of others, seeking permission where appropriate.
She also noted that it's not necessary to always be joyous! It's ok to create disturbing images, which can be gifts as well (in response to the prevailing sense at this gathering, I think, to support, celebrate, affirm).
Great process. I became INTENSELY aware of my own sense of inhibition and fear of performing in this way. Interesting. Want to use it for class.
Finally, we went outside where [ ] (can't remember his name; teaches vaudeville at Swannanoa Gathering, but I don't know him) was doing an intervention: he was seated in an easy chair, apparently sleeping, hat pulled low over his eyes; on a table beside him, he had a sign: "Emergency Nap Intervention: Bush is still in the White House, Lennon is still dead, and I just want to sleep" (or something like that); "write a note giving me a reason why I should wake up," and he had a pen and post-it notes. People had written notes and stuck them to him. Example: a teen-age girl (apparently) wrote "Good Great Sex!" and stuck it on him.
-------
Walked out of a couple of things: one, what I thought would be a discussion of "the intesection of art and activism" started with asking the group to write words or pictures of "what freedom means to me" and speak, sing, or dance, or show. I thought, this is too dumb for me, and snuck out. Things like that.
---------
A "performance" where kids showed what they had been doing in an acrobatics workshop during the week. Human pyramids, swinging them up in the air and standing on supporting hands, that kind of thing. For some reason, it was intensely moving. It was performing at its best: children absolutely being there, proud, scared, excited, putting themselves on the line. It struck me as the best, most valid performance I had seen.
--------
A "story circle" workshop led by John O'Neill and the Katrina Project people, in which we were asked to break into small groups of 4 or 5 people, tell each other stories (could be about or not about Katrina, but they all had to do with our response to the disaster in some way) which weren't supposed to exceed 3 minutes, then take a minute to just look at each other and reflect on their stories, then a "cross-talk" session of responding to each others' stories, and finally 5 minutes to make a piece which somehow incorporated them. Some of the performances were interesting but none were amazing, of course; almost all seemed to involve moving in circles in some way (we spun in a group circle repeating phrases we had come up with in response to the stories); on involved individuals each coming to audience members and whispering something and bringing us onto the floor ("out of dark comes light; so move" what what I heard and repeated). Anyway, it was interesting but all pretty obvious--as how could it not be. Made me think (as I thought again during the Katrina performance that night) of the difficulty of performing a response to a cataclysm like that, and how it invites clichés which we hesitate to label as such. But I liked it.
--------
The closing evening performance session (Saturday night) took place in the chapel, a large rectangular space with folding chairs and a cement floor (with dance floor taped down). Some great stuff:
The children (and teens) being presented and doing some movement stuff--6 or 7-year-old leading a large group movement which included adults, the teens doing a movement and/monologue piece which was angry and angsty but fine, a couple of teens just presented and praised for working and leading.
A video presentation of all the digital stories created by the kids in the workshop. Many were very basic (though all impressive) and some more imaginative--but all were very effective and personal statements from the creator, real assertions of what was important. One funny and effective one: the young woman (all had voice-overs of the creator telling the story) told of all the accidents that had happened to her, some life-threatening, some not, and after each one she would say--and the words would be superimposed--"I know I'm here for a reason." The "reason" could be anything or something she didn't know yet, but it was good.
Two young white women (in the 20s?) performed outside during intermission. They seemed to be visitors, not connected with a group or even ROOTS but doing childcare. Anyway, they danced with flaming torches while friends drummed and sang (I joined in on "Aiko Aiko") and managed not to set their long hair or scanty costumes on fire--quite professional and accomplished, actually. When I got back to my seat, they guy next to me said wryly, "Well, every group should have its sprites," which captured it exactly.
A performance of several dance numbers by the teenage dance company Moving in the Spirit (which sounds religious but isn't as far as I can tell). Four women, all very good and two outstanding. Many of the pieces were "modern dance" with the kind of aesthetic abstract movement that implies and which I don't particularly care for, but one of the pieces (which was created for adults and then set on--and changed by--these dancers) was done with 4 chairs and was amazing, just amazing: sharp, angular, angry, surprising, difficult, stunning. Very little of the "dancey" stuff. About Southern women who are expected to smile and say "yes" all the time.
Finally, "Uprooted: the Katrina Project"--a performance by a group of 10 Gulf Coast artists which I believe was still evolving and which they were also touring. The project is supported by ROOTS. It was well-performed, and had moments of real power, as well as moments (speeches, movements) that were very clichéd. John O'Neill's character--dressed in a white seersucker suit and cloth cap and carrying a large umbrella, was very strong: mostly he just chuckled and laughed and crossed the stage very slowly, but in his one speech he introduced himself as "Legbah, or Baron Samedi" and said that when you were at the crossroads and had to make a decision to do something (or to do nothing, which is also a decision), well, there he'd be. That evil laugh.
-----------
A final thought: The most extraordinary thing for me was to be with a large group of people, artists, performers, most of whom were not white. And the fact that it seemed extraordinary spoke volumes to me about how circumscribed and impoverished my relatively segregated life is. I don't think "diversity" is a particularly helpful concept here, because it sounds like an ideal, something that's supposed to be good for you like organic food. I mean the sensation of life as thick instead of thin, viscous instead of watery, bumpy instead of smooth, and often loud and raucous instead of quiet and well-behaved. Gimme more of that.
posted by Graham at 12:23 PM
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