skinned

"Skinned" is one of those perfect collaboration experiences that I dream about. I sent some stage directions I'd been thinking about to Kim. I was surprised when she wrote back that she loved it. We met in a literal meat-locker in Omaha...(OK, it's a classroom where they teach culinary students how to cut meat. Notice the posters on the wall behind the audience?) We discussed a basic outline. I edited 10 minutes of Trump talking about women down to 8 skin-crawling minutes. We went from there. I honestly think an audience member shouting "You guys are f*#%^@** crazy!" after your performance is the highest praise I can think of currently.

We were exhilarated afterward. We wanted to perform it every day.

It was cathartic.
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​It was like saying everything we were feeling without speaking a word. 

Kim started talking it up in NYC and that's how we got to perform in the AmericanAF Festival at the New Ohio Theater in October 2018.

I love this picture because it looks like we made the audience cry. Well, we did. And whether it was from the onions in a small space or the subject matter...who cares?

We performed 3 nights between an assemblage of other performance art, short pieces, films, one-acts--all "speaking through, at, and from within this vicious and incredibly alive moment in our history." We got to feel what it was like to recreate the intimacy in a larger space; the immediacy within repetition; the fervor even when half the audience walked out beforehand because they were there to see the piece before ours. All good. All juicy. All so necessary in this art-as-a-way-to-survive-crazy-times thing.

We played around with color more in the NYC performances.

Onions were red.
Shoes were yellow.
Slips were white.

20 pound bags of onions we carried in slung over our shoulders then dropped heavily onto the table. We got a lot of great feedback and responses that are factoring into next iterations of the piece.  


Here's a little mention of us in a Culturebot article about the festival.

In other news: This May, I'll be moving on from the school I've taught at for the last three years. Until then, I'm exposing the students to my favorite--site-specific theatre--as we stage a production of "The Lion King" in the school courtyard. Some of them are still not convinced about how awesome it's going to be, but I'll win them over eventually.

​In the meantime, I'm enjoying taking Storm on hikes to see the ridiculous sunsets we've been blessed with pretty much nightly here in the Bay Area. Enjoy a slideshow of these #nofilter pictures!