Its come to this overarching question: what is the context of our work within the world? It seems that everything is pushing towards defining, even for a moment, myself and my work. And this is something that I have resisted for so long but now, it seems even more important as it will guide me along to both create and find work.
The past two days have been whirlwind. I don't even know where to begin but to start with Day Two and work through Day Three. I'm going to separate the two days into two posts, I think that will be a little easier to deal with. For another look at the director's lab, check out Amy Clare Tasker, a fellow SF'er and co-conspirator.
Day Two: Surrender your Agenda
Even though we started with less than inspirational Skype "interview" with Anne Cattaneo, the founder of Director's Lab at Lincoln Center, it was followed by an interesting and invigorating workshop with the Dan O'Connor and Paul Rogen from Impro Theatre, an improv company down here in LA that create full length plays completely improvised in the style of a writer. In essence they are writing the play that the writer never wrote. By synthesizing thematic qualities, character archetypes, and developing a deep understanding of a writer's style, Impro Theatre really deconstructs the work of an author. Even though their work is essentially done for an improvisation, I found great connection with them simply because it is the work that I am interested in doing for my pieces: a (de)construction of a piece. I plan on "borrowing" some of their methodology to create some pieces in the future!
From there we traveled to the LATC to watch Cornerstone's first play within their Hunger Stories cycle, Cafe Vida. Even though I ended up sitting in the front row, it took me about half of the play to accept the style of the production. My preference within my own work and the work I see is an elegance, subtlety, and general cohesion of performance, design, and approach. There was none of this in this production: it was broad, raw, messy, with design elements challenging the performances. But...once I accepted the production's style, I was completely engulfed by the story, even though I valiantly resisted. This production brought about the most vehement discussion for this disparate group of directors. We all started to disagree immediately about everything: the performances (many of the performers were first time performers and the lead had been in prison for gang related offenses and basically played herself in the piece), the design (in my opinion poor fashioned and miserably executed). This show made me raise the question of authenticity: is it necessary to have first time performers to make this story of change through food valid? Is it necessary to have a former gang member as the lead to make the story legitimate? In my opinion, no. But it was ultimately the "authenticity" and "rawness" that the Director's Lab group was discussing. More thoughts on these questions later.
Finally we saw Expulsion by the Heidi Duckler Dance Company. This site specific piece was created off of scaffolding in the middle of an empty lot at the edge of Koreatown. After meeting the rehearsal director and chatting with her about her process and the limitations of site specific work, I was enamoured by the piece. It reminded me how much I fully enjoy dance and dance-theatre. Even with the inherent limitations of site specific work, I was invigorated and filled with beautiful images. The sparse-ness of the surroundings and of the choreography allowed the moments of fullness to explode. A beautiful evening.
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