Anyway, now I am taking a class that is pretty normal as far as performances are concerned. It's been bland. So I pushed the envelope with my performance. It felt great. It felt grand
So I sent a thank you note to my profs from last quarter. Here it is.
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Mary and Michael,
I think that I told you two that I was taking Analysis and Performance of Literature this quarter, right? Well I am. My first performance was today and I thought I'd share with you my amusement.
I started noticing through the first few days of performances that no one was really stepping out of the boundaries of normal work. People would perform in the front of the classroom in Parkes, the only variation so far being asking people to sit on the ground rather than in our desks. The translations from page to stage were also almost exclusively either boringly literal or terribly "_I_ am IN the THE-AH-TAH!" I'm sure you know what I mean.
Well, with all my Integrated Arts history I've honestly been getting quite bored with all the conventions and lack of flexibility. So here's what I did.
First off, I can't memorize at all. So I picked a four line poem to read during a 3-5 minute performance. We are not allowed in this first one to repeat or to add any spoken text other than the poem, so my task was filling time. This prompted the response "What do you MEAN that your poem is only 4 lines!!" from a classmate. Hee hee.
This is the poem:
"I will lose you. It is written
into this poem the way
the fisherman's wife knits
his death into the sweater"
I got dressed up in camouflage and sunglasses, and gestured for the class to follow me (this reminded me of the beginning of angela's Norris performance). As they did, I dropped articles about the war along my path, crumpling them as I threw them aside in anger. I wlekd the long way outside, then around back to the dumpster and stoof on top. I had an Aim-n-flame lighter with me, as well as a coffee can that had some paper with lighter fluid on it waiting outside. As I began to recite the poem, I began to show the front page headline articles from the last few weeks to the audience, then crumple the articles, and put them in the coffee can. The can was decorated with a picture of a bombed building burning and some American flags.
After the last line of the poem, I paused and attempted to burn the last article while I held it. It wouldn't light, so I lit the can itself, which went up with a satisfying, but not altogether unsafe, WHOOSH. I then held the last article over the flame, let it burn, narrowly avoided burning my hand and took a bow.
My favorite part was before class when I told this other guy that I wanted to go first but that he could set up his stuff in the classroom. He was like, "I don't understand. What do you mean that you aren't using the classroom?" Ah yes. Another highlight was the first comment of discussion afterwards--"The first line of the poem was 'I will lose you.' Yep. You sure did." Overall, people understood that the confusion I created was an integral part of the performance.
This was extremely liberating. I feel like it was sorta my coming out party for the class--"Here I am, I've done and seen so much more than the conventional in my past classes, so let's see what you think." Plus, I am gonna use the ashes/remains of the articles to do some kind of collage or mixed media painting.
Anyway, this is my long-winded way of saying thank you. If nothing else, perhaps my Anal Perf class will me a little more saucy now, and I have you two (as well as the class) to thank. It feels great to have this unconventional base I can call upon to show others that being all actor-y and trite isn't the only way to go. I'm glad that I can apply what I learned from last quarter's perf seminar to what I am doing now. What seemed so natural last quarter is radical and different this quarter.
I miss your class a lot. Thanks again.
Jim
p.s. If you'd like, you can send this message to the rest of the class. I think I'd like that.
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As I have been all week, I am currently lissening to Elliott Smith. He rules.
Email me here with your predicted MLB finishes/concerts I should go to see. If you know me personally, email me my regular nwu.edu address. I added an instant guestbook for those too lazy to email; I might remove it if I feel like this whole thing is getting too clustered.
Finally, thanks for readin'. Hope you learned something.
Metraboy Online
"start stop and start
stupid acting smart
flirting with the flicks
you say it's just for kicks
you'll be the victim of your own dirty tricks"
-- elliott smith, "pictures of me"
