So it is with PICA's T:BA for me. As a writer, as a theater person, as an artist - and even as an interpreter - T:BA exposes me to all types of new ideas, new approaches, dances which touch me deep inside but which I can't explain why or tell you what they mean. I hear new music, see theater performed in different languages, see cultural imagery different than my own and so much more. As an artist, a writer, I am opened up and soak in the energy, take in the shared breaths, bathe in the colors and smells and sounds - I am exposed and I come alive. As an interpreter, I see new meanings which can inform my work in theater and dramatic or literary readings/presentations and concerts - as well as the things which come up in the more ordinary business meeting or work retreat or when interpreting between people who are from different backgrounds or current cultures than my own. As a theater person and a theatrical interpreter, my work deepens.
PICA's T:BA is coming again in the fall. I'm trying to get my pass ordered now (there is a problem with the website and the link is not there). And I will arrange my schedule to maximize my availability to soak it all in and try something new and challenging, something I may not like. I did this in 2009 when I went to The Great Gatsby theatrical event. It was 7 hours; reading the book from beginning to end; with theatre simultaneously. The play didn't act out the story but the dialogue was the story. There was a dinner break. I'd given myself permission to not go back after dinner if I didn't like it; I didn't think I would. But I did. I did like it. And I did go back.
This year's challenge - the one known one so far - is not that I don't think I'll like it. I know I'll love it - but the format is, well, totally, new, different, and - I have to know soon when so I can schedule around it. See, Mike Daisey is performing his new 24-hour monologue - "All the Hours in the Day." From what I understand, it will be 24 hours. I think Mike Daisey is funny and insightful and smart and I like his style. And I've never attended a 24-hour piece of theater. But I will.
And I will see what other new thing I will attend after the list comes out.
Right now I need to get my pass.
In my search for the title and more information about the 24-hour event, I ran across some promo videos and interviews from PICA. Fascintating. I will watch more. And I will probably post more here because at least the ones I've watched are about : creativity.
One of my other favorites during T:BA and outside of T:BA is Ten Tiny Dances. Always sold out and always packed beyond full - it is an amazing event. And never the same. One of the videos was with the dancer and founder of Ten Tiny Dances, Mike Barber. This is a great video and there is a lot about the process and the development of this event. There is a lot of footage with Mike and Cydney Wilkes - another amazing dancer-choreographer - and the two of them together are synchronicity and electric. So the video below, from OPB's Art Beat, is about Ten Tiny Dances and the pairing of Mike Barber and Cydney Wilkes.
.
