Texting for Arts Sake Comes to the Winter Garden
Technology has changed the way we talk, read and revolt. For three days, beginning Thursday, May 12, it will also shape the every move of a group of performers enclosed within an eight-foot Plexiglas cube in the World Financial Center Winter Garden.
Inside the cage-like cube, two performers in suits and shades will dance, run, spar, drape themselves on top of each other and otherwise respond to text messages sent by people watching them in the Winter Garden or from elsewhere via a live Web stream. The messages appear on two plasma screens outside the cube.
The performance, called “The Attendants,” is conceived by the collaborative theater group The Nerve Tank, and is meant to explore how we interact and communicate in a networked world.
“The piece is really unfinished until the audience completes it,” said director Melanie Armer, a co-founder of the performance group with Chance Muehleck, who develops many of The Nerve Tank pieces.
At a recent rehearsal in a Bushwick, Brooklyn, studio, four Nerve Tank members stood in two squares marked off by masking tape, approximating the size of the space where they would be performing in a few weeks—and where seven members will take turns performing in the six-hour piece.
In one square, Mark Lindberg held his arm up as if to explore the space above his head. In the square beside him, Robin Kurtz recoiled as if burned.
Then the text messages started arriving. The audience that day consisted of Armer, Muehleck and two women who happened by. Instead of texting, they tossed out phrases.
“I could watch this all day,” one of the women said, simulating a possible text. None of the performers moved.
But then Muehleck called out, “The revolution is coming!” The performers sprang into action, pacing around the edges of their spaces in a frenzy.
Their motions strangely resembled the thousands of workers who will be passing by them in the glass-enclosed Winter Garden.
That parallel would not be lost on Debra Simon, the artistic director of the Arts World Financial Center, who first saw the piece performed in 2007.
“People at the World Financial Center are very determined to get where they are going,” Simon noted. “This piece is so visually arresting—it will force people to stop, take a moment, to see if and how they want to connect.”
While “The Attendants” depends largely on the audience, it also features some choreographed movements.
At the rehearsal, Armer directed the performers through the various poses that they would assume throughout the piece.
“Tree gazing,” Armer said. “Restless leg.” “Top and bottom.”
Limbs lifted. Bodies sprawled. Armer leaned over to tweak the position of performer Brian Barefoot.
“Now you’ve got contrast,” she said, “action in the back.”
Toward the end of the rehearsal, the performers practiced the dance choreographed for the piece. Music started. They rushed around, dipped their hips, minced about, ran in slow motion, bent and shuffled.
The song ended and they slipped out of character.
“Steamy,” said Kurtz, shedding her fogged sunglasses and sweatshirt. Armer reminded them of the black wool suits they will wear. Everyone groaned.
Not Muehleck. Seeing his concept go from a rough sketch to the Winter Garden is in many ways a dream come true. When asked what he hopes people take away from the piece, he thought for a moment.
“If they think it’s pretty, that’s cool,” he said. “Beyond that, I’m more interested in hearing from them.”
For three days in May, he will.
“The Attendants” will run May 12–14, 12–6 p.m., in the World Financial Center Winter Garden, nervetank.com.
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By Lisa Riordan Seville