Keep it:

I think the beginning is a particularly powerful way to start a performance. It lets the audience know that we want to have a relationship with them and that we’re asking them to trust us. It violates their expectations right away, which maybe sometimes can be bad, but I think is ultimately good in the context of what we’re doing because we can still surprise them within the piece without throwing them for a total loop (ie: they enter the space and sit down, expecting to watch a performance, and then we randomly do something totally crazy and freak them out). With Carina’s beginning, we freak them out from the start but in a safe and caring way. This part also really seemed to stick with most of the people I talked to and starting the piece with such an interesting sensory experience seems like the way to go with what we’re doing.

Leave it:

The iPad as a video-viewing medium. I think video-viewing needs to be an EXPERIENCE, similar to Paige’s video in the closet or the giant projected backwards writing video. I think there are better ways for people to have individual interactions with our material than to have them sit at an iPad with headphones on.

Want it:

In that vein, I am interested in incorporating one-on-one conversations/performances. This was something I sort of tried to incorporate into the showing with Jackson’s closet. I told Jackson that what I liked about his cocaine/flower performance was the character that he created. During the showing, I wanted him to just go up to people while being that character and ask people about their favorite flower. I think there’s something interesting to explore theatrically with the idea of a human library. A performer asking questions of the audience one-on-one. A performer wanting to be asked questions by the audience. A theme that may be emerging/that we certainly seem to be questioning is audience-performer relationship. How do we establish a friendship with our audience versus how do we alienate them? Contrasting one-on-one performances with other performance mediums could be a way to explore that.