December 08, 2005

Suburban Performance Art

I dreamt I’d created a performance piece. It started with my friend Julie on stage in the Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department Community Multi Purpose Room where I was in all those Jr. Theater plays like Tom Sawyer and Brigadoon. She was seated on the ground, lit up center stage by a spotlight with an old record player in front of her. She slowly put the needle on the record and began moving it with her finger, lifting the needle and playing only the intros to two different songs. After the intros one of the songs starts, and stage lights come up. Behind her (she keeps spinning the record with her finger throughout the entire performance) dancers come into view. They are dressed in pastel costumes like some kind of suburban drill team. I am one of the dancers, my position is 3rd from the right. The next song (of the second intro she originally played) we come out on stage again and do another dance. At the end there’s a guitarist downstage left, and a drummer slides out on a platform downstage right. Final beat and he throws a drumstick in the air. One of the dancers does a leap into his arms and catches it. Lights out except the one spot on Julie center stage, she slowly stops turning the record with her finger. Blackout.

Posted by allison at December 8, 2005 11:30 AM