The Pleasure of Planned Performance
“Embrace what frightens you. Get some new experiences.”
– Adam Carolla, Dancing with the Stars
Over the weekend I’ve been in Fort Lauderdale as part of a performing arts seminar. Part of it was myself and others doing some Japanese-based performance art, something like a cross between butoh and kabuki and a post-modern aesthetic. There were other groups there, but if can say so, ours was the most planned of the events.
It was an interesting experience, because my friends and I came to this conference from several different states, and spent a few hours in a hotel room Thursday night planning out cues, music, transitions, and the acts. We actually only got one rehearsal, moments before the house opened, and it didn’t matter. We blew the audience away – it was a small seminar, about 350 people, and they didn’t expect theatre. They expected a minor demonstration of, say, Kabuki costume technique, or perhaps butoh suspension performance.
They got an MC. They got comedy. They got a story arc. They got drama. They got costume changes, careful attention to music, and for the next two days people talked about it. I daresay they’ll continue to talk about it after they leave to go back to their homes.
On the one hand, part of it is due to the professionalism of the performers, in particular the Director, Lee Harrington. But honestly, we were all professionals, and what really made the difference was the seriousness with which we took the small performance. It didn’t matter that the audience was small; it didn’t matter that the admission was only $5. We took the time and the care to do the show the right way, and I think that it was done as much for each other and ourselves as anyone else. Afterwards, as we all went out for ice cream, there was a measure of camaraderie that is rare in any setting, but which normally takes weeks and months of rehearsal to instill in a cast.
Somehow we managed to get it in just a couple of hours of planning, rehearsal and performance. Taking that time made all the difference between just another conference demonstration and what was undeniably a work of art.
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