5 minutes of make-believe for people old enough to know better.

Make-believe is a powerful tool.  Kids use it all the time to learn and grow.  But as we grow up?  Not so much.  This is your opportunity to make believe as an adult.  It’s not about being wacky or crazy.  Serious make-believe embraces imaginary premises in honest and truthful ways.  Come pick (or write) a “premise card,” and we’ll send you to a professional make-believer somewhere on Governor’s Island for your very own personalized five minutes of serious make-believe.

Serious Make-Believe is presented as a part of Figment NYC, a festival full of all manner of interactive and participatory arts on Governor’s Island in New York City.  Come on out, spend the day exploring all the fun to be had at a festival that some have called, “an extremely civilized Burning Man.” Admission is FREE!

I used to think that “small talk” was just a way in which inter-actors kept themselves safe and avoided getting to the real meat of a scene. Then, by chance, I started training inter-actors to create one-on-one scenes that could last up to 60 minutes. It turns out that small talk can be very useful. Small talk provides three significant benefits.

1. Because it is something they already know how to do, small talk builds spects’ confidence in their ability to play during the early stages of a story.
2. Spects generate plot and character details with ease because, in their minds, the story hasn’t started yet; it’s just “small talk.” These details can become valuable elements on which to build and to reincorporate later in the story.
3. Paying close attention to the small talk, an inter-actor can begin to get a read on the personality and values of the spect, which is very useful information when building rapport or creating push backs.

Though most of us know how to do small talk, there we tend to have a limited menu of topics with which we are familiar. Here are is a list categories to expand your small talk repertoire.

Small talk
qualitative observations, opinions, and reports

• introduction or greeting
• traffic (getting here)
• weather
• environment (situation, setting, people, food)
• status (appearance, achievements)
• family (friends, pets)
• day (how it was…)
• work/school
• hobbies (and church)
• travel (recent, soon)
• possessions (big, new, tech)
• leisure (sports, TV, movies, music, books, art)
• news (leading stories)

Games are when the players compete.  Stories are why we care.

hmm…

Bear in mind that the thoughts on this page are my perspectives on interactive performance. There are other definitions and perspectives out there that are completely different and equally valid.
-Jeff

What is interactive performance?
Interactive performance is any performed experience in which audience members become co-creators of a performed experience, through the facilitation of trained inter-actors. Interactive performance is a form of participatory entertainment, but it also has applications in training, education, and simulation.

What is an inter-actor?
An inter-actor is a person trained in the skills of acting, improvisation, story structure, social psychology, and technology for the purpose of facilitating a spect-actor’s capacity to play. While inter-actors are often performers, they are also writers, directors, designers, technicians.

What is a spect-actor?
A spect-actor is an unrehearsed participant who becomes a co-creator of the story through active participation as a character. Often, spect-actors become the lead character, driving the story through their behaviors and choices. The term “spect” is often used as a shortened form of the word. (It is not pronounced “spec.”)

What is the purpose of interactive performance?
The purpose of interactive performance is to empower participants to play to the top of their capacities within fictional experiences. Because the objective is empowerment, interactive performance does not place spects in the role of “victim.” (e.g. Punk’d or Candid Camera), nor does it make them “living props” to be used by performers. Good interactive performance results in spects discovering new power within themselves through the process of playing in fictional narratives.

What are some examples of interactive performance?
Interactive performance is still very much on the cutting edge of popular culture. Some references that communicate the idea of interactive performance can be found in movies like The Game, The Truman Show, The Man Who Knew Too Little.

Have more questions?
Send an email. I love talking shop.

It’s summer in New York; the subway trains have become havens of air conditioned transport, women’s blouses have become transparent, and the city has become the home I never knew I had. I love the people, the architecture, the parks, the trains, the beauty, the decay. I love it all. And to top it all off, I am surrounded by a delicious smorgasbord of interactive work tucked away in the nooks and crannies of this amazing city. So much that has happened in the last few months. Here are some of the highlights.

January – I wrapped up a stint of teaching improvisation at the New York Film Academy, where I worked for an amazing guy, Glenn Kalison, who also performs in one of television’s interactive shows, What Would You Do?

February – I began directing iTeam NYC, a team of professional New York inter-actors. Working in public settings led to some new exciting discoveries, one of which you can see here.

March – I began consulting for an augmented reality company called Ogmento, where they are developing games that combine virtual and real elements on cell phones. Fun!

April – Thanks to serendipitous connection from Alex Carvallo, I developed an interactive experience for the Parson’s Dance fundraiser. The work that this company does is thrilling and inspiring.

May – Experience design visionary, Chris Stapleton, brought me back down to Orlando to consult on a concept design for a new attraction at a major theme park, which must remain unnamed.

June – Another group trained with me in my quarterly Interactive Performance Invitational Workshop. Then it was off to Baltimore, where David White invited me to serve as a resource artist for Wordbridge Playwrights Laboratory. The talent, generosity, and love found there is inspirational.

July – I launched the research and development phase of a new reality television project called Actor’s Nightmare. This show will take a group of aspiring New York actors and drop them into the lead roles of a story, without the benefit of script or rehearsal. It’s kind of like So You Think You Can Dance? for actors. We’re always looking for cast, crew, and participants, so if you’re interested, click here.

Whew. That’s a lot. But that’s my city, that’s my life, and I love them both!

-Jeff

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?

1. Add your name to the Interactive Expeditions RSVP list so we’ll know to look for you.
2. Participate in the TERP experience.
3. Afterwards, introduce yourself to Jeff Wirth and share drinks and conversation about the experience.

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.

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?

1. Order your tickets from the presenting organization for the date and time listed above.
2. Add your name to the Interactive Expeditions RSVP list so we’ll know to look for you.
3. See the show.
4. Look for the person holding the Interactive Expeditions sign after the show.
5. Go to a nearby cafe, share drinks and conversation about the experience.

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?

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.