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Blogs by Ian Thal
Whimsy: 4/29/2004 5/5/2004 10:11:28 AM
Another performance at Whimsy. Thursday, April 29:
Once again, I make my regular appearance at Whimsy. I had been rehearsing and making minor revisions to the text of "Operation Hit Them Back First Before They Hit US" all week in order to improve the rhythms, the timing and give myself the ability to be more flamboyant with the movements of my character, "Il Dottore di Difesa." Beforehand, as I am getting on my makeup, Su Eaton asks if I would do some minor tech for her bit right before I go on. She and Rosalie Barnes had planned to have their segments run together and it has been arranged that I am to follow immediately. Whimsy is usually more free form, but having performed with both Su and Rosalie in the past, I'm pretty happy to be in some sequence with them.
Rosalie goes on under the spotlight starting with a spoken word piece accompanied by some spastic movements that give a very butoh like effect. On analysis, the movements are a series of well executed shocks. I had never seen Rosalie use this sort of technique before-- indeed any movement that I wouldn't expect any actor to use-- it's fun to see this side of her as I sit cross legged on the floor to stage right with the CD player, waiting for my cue.
Rosalie sits herself at a desk and begins to cut up newspapers. Then I see Su crawl into a fabric tube that lines the aisle. This is my cue to start the music, it's a drum and bass groove-- Su's form writhes inside the cloth, slowly making her way from one end to another while making comical noises. A birth canal? Metamorphoses? Su's hand emerges from the opening and flashes me a cue to shift the disc to track five and she crawls out dancing in a striped body suit, a feather boa and a carved wood mask. She sheds some feathers all over the floor before exiting. Su has this amazing way of combining mythological archetypes and gonzo humor. I stop the music and grab my mask, slip upstage and wait for Rosalie's desk to be dragged off.
I'm happy with this performance of "Operation Hit Them Back First..." the rhythms are much tighter now. I end by turning away from the audience bending forward and poking my long beaked mask through my legs as I point my index fingers at the audience and announce "What comes in one end goes out the other..." The only probem is that the elastic is not sufficiently strong enough to keep the mask firmly on my face in that position and I feel it fly a fraction of an inch away from my skin before snapping back to me. I later add additional elastic.
I'm happy with my own performance but what makes me happier is the continuity between Rosalie, Su, and myself makes us look like a well oiled unit. It says something for our dedication to our art-- a common dedication that makes all of us look good together.
