TERP
Expedition details
Date: Thursday, March 8, 2012 – 7:00 p.m.
Location: Rush Dance Studio 392 Broadway #3F, New York, NY
Tickets: None required, free event
Website: www.terptribe.com
Note: TERP is neither created nor produced by Wirth Creative.
Expedition description
The TERP system is a tool designed for human movement composition without rehearsal. TERP experiments with movement instructions to find those that are meaningful to regular people. Think of it like a voiced GPS for groups of non-dancers!
At the TERP event, you will be wearing on your arm a small computer that is about the size of an iPod. You will also be wearing a set of headphones through which you will hear a pleasant voice providing instructions about movement. None of the instructions you will be responding to are physically taxing. Some require interpretation, either physically or emotionally. Most will be straightforward; all of them will be simple to follow.
It’s important to be able to move about the room in whatever you’re wearing that day. Also, sessions are recorded for the archives. The fun part of this TERP system for movement is that you will be creating, with the others, a little art piece in real time.
Want to come along?
- Add your name to the Interactive Expeditions RSVP list so we’ll know to look for you.
- Participate in the TERP experience.
- Afterwards, introduce yourself to Jeff Wirth and share drinks and conversation about the experience.
Why the Work?
Have you ever been out with a friend–maybe you’re in a coffee shop, or on the street, or on a train– you fabricate a bit of fiction, your friend plays along, and for a few minutes you’re playing together inside an invented world? You know how that feels? It’s fun. It’s a bit magical. And then, it’s done. What if we could do that by design, not just by accident?
Jazz musicians do it. Sure, they rehearse, take lessons, perform for audiences; but they also get together and just jam. No audience. No instructors. Just a few musicians exploring a groove and discovering where the music wants to go. It’s relaxing. It’s invigorating. It’s easy and challenging at the same time.
But where do actors and improvisers get a chance to do that? If you’re an actor, you’re in a workshop with people watching and the instructor critiquing your work, or you’re rehearsing a scene to get it ready for an audition or a show. If you’re an improviser, you’re in a class or a rehearsal or a performance with people watching, a coach taking notes, and three or four other people waiting to jump in to the scene. Where do you get the time for a character live and a scene to breathe, to find the groove and enjoy the ride?
What if there was a way for it not to be about the audience, or the critique, or the funny, or the product? What if there was a way for it just about the work. Wouldn’t that be cool?
That’s what the Work is all about. It’s an chance for you to improvise with other performers, living as characters in spontaneous scenes that play out in a real-world environments. No directors, no audience, just performers getting together, finding a groove, honing their chops, and focusing on…the work.
How Much Is Enough?
Expedition details
Date: Saturday, November 26, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.
Location: St. Anne’s Warehouse, 38 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY
Tickets:718.254.8779, 866.811.4111, or online.
Cost: Pick the price you think is fair given your interest and economic ability: either $15, $30 or $60.
Website: www.StAnnsWarehouse.org
Note: How Much is Enough is neither created nor produced by Wirth Creative.
Expedition description
How Much is Enough? explores notions of “value” — in all its poetic iterations — quantitatively through our relations to money and qualitatively by asking what we hold dear. The piece itself is built entirely out of questions posed by three performers to audience members, to each other, to the universe, and then some, about how we live our lives, what plans we’ve made for the future and what advice we can offer one another as we attempt to create lives of value.
Equal parts town hall meeting, party, guide for the perplexed … and then some, How Much is Enough? gathers its greatest theatricality from the most interesting people in the theater – those who usually sit in the dark.
Want to come along?
- Order your tickets from the presenting organization for the date and time listed above.
- Add your name to the Interactive Expeditions RSVP list so we’ll know to look for you.
- See the show.
- Look for the person holding the Interactive Expeditions sign after the show.
- Go to a nearby cafe, share drinks and conversation about the experience.
Treating crowds as people
Below is a link to an interesting article in The Economist about about modeling crowd dynamics on the behavior of molecules (a common model) and on the behavior of people (the innovation addressed in the article). Turns out there is an advantage to the use of both models.
Wisdom About Crowds - http://www.economist.com/node/18584096
The article was sent to me by Kenneth Ingraham, the president of Interactor Simulation Systems. Ken also has an interesting idea to address the hazards of crowd behavior disasters by using physical connection. While his idea might at first seem counter-intuitive, it also might be a successful one. I wonder how one might test such an idea?
Live Music Update
An update on our work with musicians:
The upright bass player was able to make it to rehearsal last Monday. He was very talented and able to play a wide range of emotions, and while it was his first time working with us, it was a wonderful experience.
The biggest lesson we learned – less is more. Silences are powerful when a spect-actor is accustomed to a layer of music coming in and out. Because the spect’s senses are on overdrive for the opening scene, music only complicates the work. Best to let them get comfortable with their surroundings before putting some of their focus on a new element. Tense moments are heightened when there’s a break in the music, when nothing else is audible except the dialogue and sounds of the scene partners, and then a quick start gets the pace moving in a fresh direction.
There were only a couple moments when the music was a distraction, pulling the spect-actor out the moment with the inter-actor in the scene. We’ll have to play with volume control and some more sensitivity to what the scene needs.
Live Music
On Monday, we’ll hold a rehearsal with a couple musicians, one with an upright bass and the other with a muted trumpet. This will mark the beginning of a larger project which may be filmed. I’m aware that StoryBox has made great use of the Ambient Sound Machine, but have there been any applications of live music on the form?
Aside from the obvious consideration of volume, we’re already keeping in mind the emotional impact that music can have. We don’t want it to be a major influence on the spect (e.g. manipulating their emotions through tear-jerking chords or a quick tempo), but it will be interesting to try it out as a backdrop.
If you’ve attempted such work before, what insight do you have?
Much appreciated,
Shea
Whom do you trust?
This story makes me happy. It’s how life should be, and sometimes is.
Small time prisoner
This story comes from The Moth. If you don’t know this podcast and you like great stories, you should check them out.
Aberration
Not all aberrations are innovations, but every innovation was at one time an aberration.
-JW