New Work, Performance and Writing
Well, I'm published again, this latest time in a webzine called Defenestration.
http://defenestrationmag.net/
It's a piece of silliness about a Christian jewelry ministry. Okay, maybe it's less silly and more satire. I'm not sure, in some places, how satirical I am and how serious I am. Part of me wants to be the jeweler in the piece, only not out of the same . . . shall we say, convictions?
It's a piece I wrote and wasn't sure what to do with, so I'm glad it found a home. I say that like it up and wandered the world until it settled at Defenestration. I have a couple of other pieces that should do likewise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm involved with Fieldwork this spring. By "involved," I mean I'm the facilitator of the session. The people we're getting are topnotch, I just wish it were twice as many. Or just two more would be about right. Finding independent artists who want to show new work and receive feedback is harder than I would have imagined. But that's not the point here tonight.
I'm making a new performance piece. Now, all my work has a religious bent, even though I often fight against that. But this new piece is perhaps more overtly religious. Or maybe I'm just not fighting the religiosity. I'm embracing it. I just hope it doesn't come off like some evangelistic pamphlet. That's always my worry. It needs to have it's own integrity, apart from any message. And at this very moment, I'm not even entirely certain what the "message" might be (although I'd prefer to think of it as a "theme").
Here's what I do know: It's a piece that I'm building based upon three sayings of the Desert Fathers, the 4th century monks who started the whole Christian monastic tradition. Perhaps even more, it's based upon Roberta Bondi's book, T0 Love as God Loves, which is about the Desert Fathers. But I'm not paraphrasing her, I'm paraphrasing the Fathers. The feedback that I've gotten so far is that the rough beginnings remind people of Buddhist ritual or maybe Yogic movement. It has something about our weakness being strength, which a notion from St. Paul. Yes, I guess that is the theme.
I also know that I don't want it to be a solo piece, although I've been showing these rough beginnings as solo performance. I'm talking to two friends/colleagues about performing with me and they're amenable, now we just have to coordinate rehearsal schedules and the like--which is always the hardest part. I'm tired of solo performance. I'm sure I'll do it again, but right now, I'm itching to work with other performers. And these two friends/colleagues are two people I respect and enjoy. We're brainstorming other ways to work together. We'll see how this goes.
There's so little financial reward in making performance work, which is disheartening at times. Especially if you're doing performance like I tend to make: meditative, introspective pieces for people with measurable attention spans. But when it's not disheartening, it's such a joy to me. The work is its own reason, commerce be damned. I don't want to say I make performance just for me--an audience is essential! But if my audience is a handful rather than an auditorium-full, well, the audience gives me joy as well, no matter what size.
I'll tell you more about the piece as it's made. And about the performers as the schedules clear up to reveal who'll actually be with me . . .
http://defenestrationmag.net/
It's a piece of silliness about a Christian jewelry ministry. Okay, maybe it's less silly and more satire. I'm not sure, in some places, how satirical I am and how serious I am. Part of me wants to be the jeweler in the piece, only not out of the same . . . shall we say, convictions?
It's a piece I wrote and wasn't sure what to do with, so I'm glad it found a home. I say that like it up and wandered the world until it settled at Defenestration. I have a couple of other pieces that should do likewise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm involved with Fieldwork this spring. By "involved," I mean I'm the facilitator of the session. The people we're getting are topnotch, I just wish it were twice as many. Or just two more would be about right. Finding independent artists who want to show new work and receive feedback is harder than I would have imagined. But that's not the point here tonight.
I'm making a new performance piece. Now, all my work has a religious bent, even though I often fight against that. But this new piece is perhaps more overtly religious. Or maybe I'm just not fighting the religiosity. I'm embracing it. I just hope it doesn't come off like some evangelistic pamphlet. That's always my worry. It needs to have it's own integrity, apart from any message. And at this very moment, I'm not even entirely certain what the "message" might be (although I'd prefer to think of it as a "theme").
Here's what I do know: It's a piece that I'm building based upon three sayings of the Desert Fathers, the 4th century monks who started the whole Christian monastic tradition. Perhaps even more, it's based upon Roberta Bondi's book, T0 Love as God Loves, which is about the Desert Fathers. But I'm not paraphrasing her, I'm paraphrasing the Fathers. The feedback that I've gotten so far is that the rough beginnings remind people of Buddhist ritual or maybe Yogic movement. It has something about our weakness being strength, which a notion from St. Paul. Yes, I guess that is the theme.
I also know that I don't want it to be a solo piece, although I've been showing these rough beginnings as solo performance. I'm talking to two friends/colleagues about performing with me and they're amenable, now we just have to coordinate rehearsal schedules and the like--which is always the hardest part. I'm tired of solo performance. I'm sure I'll do it again, but right now, I'm itching to work with other performers. And these two friends/colleagues are two people I respect and enjoy. We're brainstorming other ways to work together. We'll see how this goes.
There's so little financial reward in making performance work, which is disheartening at times. Especially if you're doing performance like I tend to make: meditative, introspective pieces for people with measurable attention spans. But when it's not disheartening, it's such a joy to me. The work is its own reason, commerce be damned. I don't want to say I make performance just for me--an audience is essential! But if my audience is a handful rather than an auditorium-full, well, the audience gives me joy as well, no matter what size.
I'll tell you more about the piece as it's made. And about the performers as the schedules clear up to reveal who'll actually be with me . . .
posted by Neil Ellis Orts at 10:16 PM
5 Comments:
ouch, Neil! good work on the jewelry piece. you should post a link at IMAGE forum. i think there are a lot people there who would dig it.
i also like the sound of the new performance piece so far. maybe something Michael would want for the West Edge here?
Hi there. I do fieldwork also here in Miami, Fl and serve as the project coordinator.
I'm a performance artist also and found your blog here doing a search.
Would you like to collaborate on an action sometime?
Check out my work at
performanceandactions.blogspot.com
Here's my website too-
beckyflowers.net
hey, it was the all-Becky response blog!
Becky One: Does Michael have a performance space? I'm not sure about mixing purposes, although I'm also all about killing as many birds as I can with one stone. (Not that I throw rocks at birds. Mama taught me better than that.) My experience has been to keep publicity as simple as possible. It seems people can understand a book signing, or they can understand a performance piece, but they often get confused if you try to publicize two things. "what? I thought he was doing a signing." "no no, it's a performance piece." "Is he one of those 'spoken word performers'? Is this a poetry slam?"
That sort of thing. So maybe I'll see what West Edge is like, see what's possible, and maybe bring it up with Michael then (unless he's reading my blog and so it's already brought up). After Fieldwork is done, it looks like my collaborators are each going to make a performance piece for the three of us for a full evening. That's what I would prefer taking on the road.
And hello to Miami Becky. I found your blog rather engaging in that subtle, I'm-not-sure-about-this-type-of-work-but-I-can't-stop-clicking way. I'm so ordinary. I tend to want a stage and lights and the traditional trappings of performance, even if my work is in that liminal "not really theater, not really dance" sort of thing. I guess I'm experimental that way. But even in my experimentation, I always feel like I'm not an innovator but playing in someone else's innovation. If you know what I mean.
Having now staked my territory as doing something different from what you're doing . . . yeah. Have anything in mind? I'm also interested in stretching myself and trying new things. It just always seems to morph into something sort of . . . mainstream.
I yam what I yam.
This is something I do love about Fieldwork, though. You start building all these little connections in the Field network.
Feel free to e-mail me at neilellisorts at yahoo dot com.
hey, Neil, i just today (Mar. 8)found your reply to my suggestion about the West Edge as a performance space. i was really thinking about pitching the work to Michael while you're here, to perform at some later date.
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