Personal Thoughts:
I…can’t comment much because I didn’t actually get to see any of our showing. I couldn’t enter the room at all during the “museum gallery” phase, otherwise I’d spoil the grape costume, and a vinegar costume wouldn’t have made any sense.
So uh…just from the planning stage, I was hoping for a little more cohesion? That’s a lot to ask for considering we threw the ordering together within three furious hours, but there was nothing resembling a unified theme ~ which I think is more than fine for a first showing, but perhaps we should do more focused work from here on out?
Thoughts From 1st Friend:
“It was a compilation of things that I don’t think are related, but maybe they ARE related, but if you look hard enough maybe you’ll find a relation between all of those. I assume. Not something I was willing to do.”
“What struck me was that a bottle labeled ‘taste me’ was enticing enough for people to taste. You don’t taste things that you don’t know what it is or you don’t know who drank it. It could be anything. Did I drink it? Absolutely not.”
“I guess I’d let someone feed me if I knew them…and if it wasn’t bread. I did not accept food from the mysterious nude Christmas lights man. He was laying on the floor. That wasn’t right.”
“I got the sense that a lot of it was symbolizing different types of struggles that come with established structures. There was one about how not everyone has an equal chance in society, the criminal justice system…one about religion. I think it was about how these establishments are unfair…although if you don’t think they’re unfair, you might not see it that way.
“What kind of questions does this piece provoke? Everything in the system is broken. Everything. Maybe not the sewers…the sewers get a B-.”
“What did the artist achieve? That’s weird because if it was a group of artists I don’t think they were all trying to achieve the same thing.”
“I’m pretty sure the piece mostly felt cautious. I was cautious of being blinded by lights. Cautious of random substances. Cautious of watching a video where you watch a video with a shower that is clearly on. What if it was a naked person? It wasn’t.”
“If there’s no question about the pokemon cards, the pokemon cards were unfair. Tell me who, anyone, who would trade a Dewgong for a Zapdos? Who would do that without context?”
“I thought the opening was trying to create a sense of reliance on societal cues around you. Like, there was a part where people started clapping, and I felt a need to also clap. But why were they clapping? Why should I clap?”
“I thought the grape thing was really good, but I like puns. Maybe people who don’t like puns wouldn’t even notice, they would think about the actual message. And the message isn’t that puns are great, the message is that society has problems. But puns are great. I think it’s hard to view seriously when someone comes out wearing weird purple clothes. No way.”
“Federalist papers? We were all reading different things? I was just focused on getting through it. You all fall into a trap where you’re all just saying stuff. I guarantee you that nobody knew what they were talking about. I voted nay because I didn’t know what was happening. Can’t vote yae to something you don’t understand.”
“Albinism? The weird balls? I got it. People are different.”
“The person going around doing graffiti? No idea what was going on. But people were laughing. Was it supposed to be funny? There was a lot of laughing at things that weren’t funny. This is what happens when you have people in things. If you plucked people from North Adams there would be less laughing. I guarantee it. Men’s Wearhouse.”
“Law and Order? Great. But it relates to one of my classes, so maybe I’m biased. If people had put themselves in the seat of the girl who was crying, maybe people would understand how hard it is to talk to someone who is yelling at you when you can’t yell back.”
“…People are very trusting in that they put their face in a box when they don’t know what will happen afterwards.”
“I went into the closet that had a sign on it. Apparently there was a another closet that did not have a sign on it, so I didn’t know to interact with it.’
“Go see Zootopia, out March 4th.”
Thoughts From 2nd Friend:
“I think of the grape/raisin performance and the constitution one, those are the ones that come to mind.”
“Kimmy’s performance was the most overtly political by far, and so I was trying to figure out how it related to the other pieces and the room.”
“Using humor to talk about serious things or serious things to talk about humor…I’m not sure which is which whoaaaa. I guess…what it means for people to be laughing at the things you’re saying and what it means to incite that reaction. Yeah. That’s a reaction.”
“…I just like the visual of it [the Federalist Papers.] Just the imagery stuck with me.”
“I remember Bailey’s box…I…Bailey’s my friend, so I was trying to sorta make him break a little bit. Like, make conversation with him, which is not what you’re supposed to do I think. So…that relationship, audience disrupting the performance.”
“If you have the performer in a place that’s very accessible to you and you’re comfortable interacting, then uh…”
“How many things did I eat? Just a piece of bread. I was wondering though, were there gluten free options? This was an ablest performance.”
![IMG_0009[1]](https://sites.williams.edu/thea350-16s/files/2016/02/IMG_00091.jpg)