Deathbeds

2/4/15

Prancers & Entrancers,

There's this project happening, that's started now & that will keep happening that's in the Hudson Valley & made of & by & for the people who are here now who want to be doing this together.
I call what we're doing "investigative operatics"---- "opera" as in: plural of "opus"; a means of thinking performatively & playfully, toward forms both themselves & potentially otherwise (mutually); bent on vocality, w/ heightened emotions & high stakes, harrowing & hilarious; that takes & makes place & brings about present presences; is ongoing, continuous; an open structure, sound enough to host & nurture multifarious substructures; a communitarian methodology.

It's based in large part on a way of working forged by Fred ("Mister") Rogers.  His (brilliantly unhinged, fearlessly experimental) operas were both conceived of & enacted within the Neighborhood of Make Believe, an immanently activated arena, recognizable as it was changeable.  There, participants would contribute whatever bits & energies were vibrantly at the ready, be they anxieties, excitements, aptitudes, inquiries, uncertainties, poetic or clumsy, always collaboratively.

Last night, a baker's dozen of us convened at DOORS UNLIMITED to brainstorm & organize ways to work together on a project called Deathbeds (melo-dramatic/ soap-operatic appearances & disappearances on/for/in screenal space) & here are some field notes from that:
  • Phenomenally & w/o planning, there were 2 of everything: 2 lentil stews, 2 kale salads, 2 pizzas, 2 cab savs.  This underscores what I had reason to suspect: that there is twinning at work.  Next time, please try to coordinate outfits w/ yr secret twin (the one no one knew existed that is likely played by the same actor & emerges/escapes when least expected) communicating only via telekinetic twin language, of course.
  • We sat by the fire, drew & diagrammed ideas, asked questions, noticed correspondences, decided Tuesdays are interesting, are already anxious for future Tuesdays & more collaborators & getting right down to it.
  • Ideas-as-elements tossed into the air that might be shuffled, ordered & recombined any # of ways include:
    • dramatic exhalations/excretions of orange foam
    • background action more fascinating or quicker paced than foreground action
    • workout scenarios in which each exerciser[/exorcist?] is filmed in the exact same spot executing the exact same actions/routine
    • inviting in the efforts/participants working in/with other nearby orgs for projects to catalyze efforts
    • filming in local caves, on local trails
    • costuming & costumers
    • death masks
    • elaborate wallpaper
    • honing in on Hone St
    • pianos
    • 40 black cats
    • dramatizing artist talks
    • squatting (as in "free rent" but also is a good exercise)
    • the visual language of public service announcements
    • animals giving warnings (chickens, turkey, peacocks, an octopus, Pac-Man, the inflatable thing that flops & dances outside car dealerships & cellphone stores, etc)
    • a praying muscle man?
    • protests/protesters
    • patterns, patterning
    • therapeutic models
    • non-school schools
    • "no future"
    • ventriloquism
... & I wrote some notes but they're not here, which must mean someone else is working w/ them maybe, which seems good.

In any case, there is work/play underway & we are meeting again soon & then again & always often.

(Last night went late for those who like that–– I do–– & dancing tends to happen, too.)
(Meetings won't/don't have to always be on Tuesday, but for now, for now.)
Lastly, just to say that this is very, very much an "Upstate" thing in that it's happening in the "Elsewhere."  It's for us doing what we can do here how we do & can't so easily elsewhere.  While we're working together toward a common product, our efforts need not mimic those constrained by markets.  At home w/ range, let's be!

Ever,
Bethany

P.S. Please invite others! I sometimes lose the slips of paper w/ the emails written on them, but my aim is true.  For instance: Julie & Peter–– could someone fwd this to them?
Deathbeds pictured, by Aaron Lockhart & Chelsea Culpepper (top), Benji Raponi (bottom).



2/13/15:





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