Rehearsal notes 3/7/10

SPACE PROJECT REHEARSAL
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Milepost 5
Jonathan, Julie, Faith, Maesie, Jerry, Jeb, Liz, Scott

HOMEWORK:
- Source Material for (Sunday (Intros))
- Etude, Mirror Clip. Approximate flow of images as if your own life. Hyper-realize it. (Wednesday)
- React to Proust, Etude (Wed/Thurs)

ACTION ITEMS:
1) Monitor for Wednesday (julie or Liz)
2) (Jonathan) Microphones
3) (Jonathan) Contact List
4) (Jonathan) Email James about getting video working and sound card
5) Buy rechargeable 2 9V, 4 AA batteries (Liz)

Notes After the jump...



Source Material Discussion 11:30

Jerry:
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley.
Science vs Savage, 2 ways of living, morality vs progress?

Liz:
Tarkovsky, "As a Child I once fell Ill"
Ideas of time
Margaret Atwood, "Oryx and Crake"
Snowman, aka "Jimmy", forget the past…exist only in the present
They don't know death, no idea of a gun
Journey of walking, people shooting. They don't know what it is. "That person has fallen to the ground"
New beginning from complete chaos. "Chaos always smells bad"

Maesie:
Proust, "In Search of Lost Time"
Prior note, bring more text. Finding pieces that fit with our needs.
- 7 volumes, work as whole? Work in pieces?
- Pinter Screenplay?
There IS a narrative. Question of usefulness due to relation to society/identity of Proust's time.
"A pair or wings" True voyage would be to see universe in the eyes of others. Hundreds of others."The lie" The lie of who we are, what we believe, our motives, what we want from people.
The word "forget" important in the last book.

Search through the electronic versions of Proust online. Specific words, phrases.
Formatting of Maesie's document from Charles Mee play. Reads more like poetry.
- Idea to use formatting for future text/ideas
Future speeches, future archives, spoken from 2050 about 2009

Julie:
Concordance. Searching through Proust.
Foxfire guides? Whole Earth catalogues?

Faith:
Watched Stalker. Clip to watch.
Image of dog, animal "spirit guide"
Similar ground to Solaris.
"zone" where people go, things happen, but no one is quite sure what.
Poetry as text.

Jeb:
"Dark Star" What happens once you have been left in space for 20 years. What happens when the controller dies.
Existential questioning to prevent a smart bomb from exploding. Philosophy, questioning. Is your information real?
Invitation to Jeb for blog?
Is there a central theme or question?

Jonathan:
Historical reenactment world. Imagining of the future. World's Fair.
Living history.
What is the next step in source material?
Disney film, "The Black Hole"

What jumped out at people?

Faith -
Feeling better about Proust. Anchor sci-fi with personal philosophy. Tarkovsky. Intrigued by classic sci-fi text, Brave New World. Too classic? Baggage?
Sci-fi Intros
Proust and Tark are very heady. Desires a sense of adventure.

Julie -
Proust & Tarkovsky. Proust set in the mind. Tark more tangible, in a place, textures, sounds, movement.
Proust, emotional intent, language.
Both still very expansive.
Wants to hear speeches from the mentioned philosophy.
Real sense of joy in Proust. Shades of not being serious. Curious, exploration, humor.

Maesie -
Mind vs physical. Concerned that both are "hyper-real". Hyper intellectual. Missing the personal, connection. Liked connection in Brave New World betw future and natural world. New vs old, how to link?

Liz -
Tarkovsky. Interested in his words, thought process, beyond the films.
Work from poem, piece of text. We could write the poem, personal. Humor?

Jerry -
Does one source have more "value"? Can make one more personal.
Was touched by the Proust text. Accessible.
First introduction to Tarkovsky. Not sure what to take from it.
"The Noble Savage"
Take names from Oryx and Crake

Jonathan -
Brave New World's intro. Though themes seem old, now.
Intros, writing about writing.
Proust/Tark, high art already? Tark, visual challenge as a spark.
Idea - 8 clips from films that are somehow related. Tangible other worlds.
Likes the Proust/Tark pieces, question of how to develop further?

Jeb -
"You can't change a mistake in art", Can you rewrite history? (in relation to historical re-enactment)
Liked the association in Atwood, "My chest hairs are feathers"
Warning of danger of "high art", Proust, brought up "From a Dream to a Dream"
But likes beauty of the Proust language

Scott -
David Lynch's Dune, ideas of prescience. Knowing the future/time. Are you helpless in the hands of fate?

Wrap Up

Proust/Tark struck chords with everyone
What do we have that we like?
Conversely, what do we not have?

Use trepidation to move on, next rehearsal.

"Pop" How do we define?
Things from our childhood, culture. Striking memory associations.
Exploring epic themes in a "low-brow", entertaining, accessible way.

Where did Science Fiction go and how was/is it realized? "Look" of the show vs "Ideas"

Idea of being the last of one's race? (The Last Unicorn)
Barbarella, Ziggy Stardust, Zardos, Last Starfighter
Why did we react strongly to these works??? Why do we love them, cherish them?

"Personal" Human to human. Immediate.
These two seem to be missing, but desired.
Pushing back on Sci-Fi with the personal, human interest.
Too much symbology in Tarkovsky? Everything means something else. Metaphor.
Finding something universal, approachable to the audience.
We choose the method of personalization.

Intros and historical re-enactments.
Hyper-fake?
Idea of LittleWorld, NYC theme park, "dwarf town", inhabitants got too "into it", resulted in alcoholism, rape, murder, hierarchies

Intros
Summarizing the broad idea/concept of what is going. Broader ideas.

How to use this idea!
Geographical re-enactment? Personal re-enactment (is the personal mundane interesting)?

Writers writing about writing. Hyper-awareness.

More tangibility moving forward.
Hard copies

Is Sci-Fi a limiter?
Yes, but we kind of like it

Solaris Shorts - 3:30 pm

Round 1

1) Julie
Lights, shadow. Left and right, framing woman seated at center.
Four people move forward from each corner, moving against her, touching her.
She stares blankly forward, no emotion.
She steps forward, out of the light. Complete shadow.

2) Maesie
3 lights from behind. Backshadow. Woman in foreground, woman in background.
Right hand moves up. Woman in background moves forward.
Frontwoman looks right, they touch, embrace.
Woman from back retreats

3) Liz (using womb effect)
Man lies prone on ground. Light from the side of his feet
Two women crawl towards him.
Approaching his body, they stand. Move past him, looking towards audience and raising hands to face.
Man moves, almost weightless. Women step forward and separate, moving out to each side, faces to columns.
Man rises, looks at each. Speaks. "How did you know I was here?"

4) Faith (using Womb effect)
Sidelight. Woman face back. Another faces front.
Woman turns from back to face forward. The other moves to her, lifts her right arm to her mouth, kisses her hand.
Woman breaks away from contact. The other speaks, "It's so nice."

5) Jeb (Likes Triennale)
Man holds woman standing, walks forward with her. Her eyes are closed. Woman moves from opposite with chair.
They get closer. She sits, stands, moves and rubs standing woman with a carrot. She opens her eyes in response.
"What are you doing here?"

Notes:
1) Likes trapped against something, before anyone else comes.
People moving lights, ask Chris, rigid system? Moving system?

2) Static at beginning, movement from stasis.
Look is striking. No acknowledgment until they actually touch.
Framing is good. Leads to active approach.
When Maesie's hand went down, shifted ability of movement, time (!) changed

3) Crawling was an interesting effect. Animal. Crawl up and over him. Seductive due to physical closeness.
Reaction almost non-present due to avoidance of reacting to very sexual positions.

4) Words, "It's so nice" was striking. Nice disconnect with the words and the scene.

5) Carrot! Bizarre imagery.
Also liked image of Jeb coming alive, after only moving Liz. Liz also awakening.

Round 2

1) Jeb
John in Snuggie. Jeb/Liz break from center. Liz moves to John, brushes him. Lights blind audience. John emerges. Jeb/Liz reconvene.
Look back towards John.

2) Maesie
3 lights facing back wall. Silhouetting the back of one woman each. Silence. Heads move to the left and around, back to wall, slowly fluid.
Heads move back sharply. Back to wall. All 3 turn around, brush hair off to side with one hand and then the other. Hand touches forehead,
grotesque (?) facial gestures.

3) Faith (Moon Trills)
Julie moves onto stage, slowly. Faces center, head tilted. Maesie approaches from opposite side, mimics earlier movement. Julie "speaks" silently. M moves around to Julie, speaking. No volume to words. Only mouth movement. Faith approaches, opposite side. Julie moves around her, "speaking" to her ear. M mirrors on other side. J and F fall down. M remains standing, moves slowly to ground, head on knees.

4) Liz
Jeb on ground. Liz on right. Jeb mouthes words silently. Liz moves to him, touches his face. Picks up light, moves it around in circles. Sits.
Jebs sits up. Liz approaches from right. Sits by him. Touches his face.

Notes:
1) Liked the reaction look back towards John.
2) Organic sense of time. "Frames of information"
Power of 3 people turning around in unison, in slow motion.
Idea of Greek Chorus.
3) Loves talking silently. Ideas of aloneness, alienation.
4) Strange image of Jeb talking to himself. Staging as if they are close together, but are staged far apart.

Round 3

Round 1-2
Directions:
M, DL right hand up in air, J approaches raises left hand to match right. M kisses J's hand, allows embrace (face in hand). J retreats back. M abruptly turns and reaches out. Hold gesture. Freeze.
F, DR, behind M/J, mimic movement with Jeb and Liz on opposite side.

Round 1-3
Directions:
Jeb prone on ground. Head SL. Liz crawls towards him from SR. Faith, Maesie, Julie, follows in a row. Liz crawls over Jeb to one side. Faith opposite. Once past head, stands (each follows). Once standing, raises right hand to face, positioned in cascading offset line.

One option performed without prone Jeb. All five in a line at the end.