AOA Season 5 Ep 17
Molly: Hello and welcome to a podcast about creating experimental art in trauma-informed and sustainable ways that support artists, our communities and the organization as a whole. I'm your host, Molly, and you're listening to Any Other Anythings.
Molly: In this season, we are focused on the latest project being produced by Grey Box Collective. It is titled Positive Ruminations. So this is an event that will feature four new works and each episode of this season of Any Other Anythings will feature conversations from the creative teams developing the new work, and we are really focusing on capturing the process and sharing out the things we find interesting along the way. Hope that you enjoy the season of Any Other Anythings.
Molly: Alright. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Any Other Anythings. So in this episode, you have finally, I guess, with Finger Painting [for grown-ups], the full ensemble of Lauren and Ri talking about the process. And so since this was in many ways, the first and only episode where we were able to fully talk and record about the process, it's a little longer than the previous ones just so that we could really acknowledge the transitions and the transformation that has happened as part of this piece. Yeah, and I hope you enjoy it.
Molly: So this is technically the first and last recording of the Finger Painting [for grown-ups] podcast episode for this round iteration of this project. So Ri and Lauren, maybe, like, we can kind of recap the journey of this piece. I've referred to it in other episodes, as this piece has gone through a lot of transformation and transition over the past two months, and here we are.
Molly: So, yeah. Start with, like, a summary, I guess?
Ri: Molly asked me to jump into the piece, and I said, okay, and then we proceeded to create an entire piece, in, like, a really epic way. I had a rehearsal where I think I made over a hundred gestures is what it felt like on post-it notes. And we wrote down I was like, wow, I've never made this many gestures in my entire life I had so many options and then magically crafted an itinerary of how we would put those together and then Lauren can speak to her experience in the piece but then we performed it.
Ri: So I'll pause that and then pass to you.
Lauren: You'll "pause" it?
Ri: Heyyy!
Molly: Heyyy!
Lauren: So like two days after Ri was asked to do it I was asked to join the piece. I did get a heads up beforehand of like, hey, I'm, I'm asking Ri today, but you're up next if we need. And that's where we are now. I do have a longer history with Finger Painting.
Lauren: I was in the version ten years ago. Which is wild to say, like, pre-Grey Box era Grey Box-ing. This is like the pocket sized version. So instead of a full scale show with the script, we do just have that itinerary interacting with the sound score in the space. Which really is existing to help us through it because again, we had a single rehearsal to score this all out into movement but it is a lot of fun. It is a really cool experience I think from the inside and I'm hoping the audience also kind of gets that vibe as well, you know with the directions happening and the movements and at no point are we acknowledging each other.
Lauren: We're both just in our list of things to do and tasks and stuff to accomplish, whether they be fun or kind of hustle bustle style movement.
Ri: Yeah, and I think the important thing to know is that the first time we ever met to try to put this piece together was to perform it for a showing. So we hadn't even rehearsed it, and then we were performing it.
Ri: So that was a magical, a magical moment. But I think it's really brilliant to use the sound score and as cueing, but I think it also helps the audience read the piece really well. And I think it's really fun and I love the nostalgia of the 80s tape recorder with the mic put next to the speaker to amplify it like old school style.
Ri: And, and then having the audience member flip over the tape so that it's like fully audience interactive, they are controlling the sound in many ways. And so they have choices they can make and kind of do their own busy culture hustle. of how to engage with a piece. So I think that's very fun.
Lauren: Also, every time I hear the word hustle in this, between us, I'm thinking, do, do, do, do.
Molly: Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think about Grey Box shows as always having some kind of like, I call it audience interaction light where it's not like, we're not pulling anyone up on stage or like asking you to be heavily involved. You're kind of passively involved. So it's engaging. And I, I do think like Ri just, as you said that I was like, this is maybe a little more involved than like, it seems passive, but then all of a sudden you are responsible for the entire soundscape, which means you're responsible for the entire show because all of the movements are connected into the soundscape.
Molly: So. No pressure to the audience member that, yeah yes. So, okay, so thinking about, like, busy culture and the show, what are some of the, like, connections or what's really feeling busy culture-y on the inside?
Lauren: The gestures definitely are a highlight of that busy culture and like Ri, I know you did a ton of work with that and I just like slid in after.
Lauren: Your one rehearsal on your own and going through those being directed like, you know, move faster, change what you're doing, move faster, now do this definitely has that layer of, okay, I'm at work and today I have to send this email and make these two phone calls and go to this meeting and do the, you know, so I think there is that connection regardless of what your like status of employment is or even whether you're at home. If you're you know in that like okay well I have to sweep the floor and I have to wipe off the kitchen counter and I have to go and I have to send this one mail and all of these little things that pile up in our brain is just really being narrated out loud throughout the piece.
Ri: I feel like I am embodying a lot of my thinking processes in how the thing was telling me what to do. That's like my meta brain being like, these are all the things you have to do. Okay, but now you have to pause, redirect, go over here. This thing has to be done right now. Nope, you got to do this thing over here.
Ri: Nope, you have to do this thing over there. And it like feels like my inner monologue. And I resonate very deeply in that. And I appreciate these different moments of contrast where we're doing the gestures. so much. And then like at least I'm now kind of freezing and then doing just really simple gestures and then redirecting and then I'm doing choreography and it's really flowy and then I'm doing like more gestures and there's the kid dance where you just get to be totally free. And I just think the contrast between all of those things in this very like chaotic space, feels like it, how busy culture feels without being able to describe it in words quite so accurately.
Molly: Yeah, and that, what that actually just makes me think about, right, like the choreography is these free flowing moments, and I feel like, it's been a while since I've had like a corporate kind of job, but, it's like you finally get into like your own little psychological flow with something. And that's when your boss is like, hey, I need you to do something else.
Molly: And you're like, I just was in the flow. I was in the moment. And busy culture, like, interjects itself in it.
Ri: Mm hmm. And I really love the contrast between, like, the challenge of trying to be totally free and uninhibited, as much as you can be. Train it out of your body. For the kid dance versus the choreographic dance.
Ri: Cause as a dancer who's trained in like specific styles and techniques, it is very challenging sometimes to just let, drop that and let it go and then pop back into the other parts, but I love gestures, so it brings me great joy to actually embody those.
Lauren: Sorry, I know we can't see what's going on, but big yawn.
Molly: Big yawn. Big yawn energy.
Lauren: So tired.
Molly: Yes, yes. So what are you hoping the audience experiences with this piece? Or anything else that you'd like to share out there?
Lauren: I hope the audience finds a little joy in, again, like that gesture set of like, oh yes, these are the billionaire gestures, or like those are the taxi and bus gestures.
Lauren: Finding those moments where they can relate to, you know, oh yeah, I've seen that before, or that reminds me of blankety blankety blank. But also the joy of that cheekiness that the audio recording has in the soundscape. So even if you are feeling very balanced in your life culture, busy culture, and you know, not overwhelmed you know, watch us get overwhelmed on your behalf and then play through it.
Ri: Yeah, I think I'm hoping it'll bring into perspective a reminder of work life balance. And maybe a little moment of like, wow, I'm really relating to the busy culture gestures. Wouldn't it be so fun to be free like the kid dancing and just take a moment for myself and run around and be free for, you know, just like a minute or two.
Ri: It was actually a really long time to dance for. But I hope, I hope people take that away as like a little reminder that like you still have agency and control even in the midst of this expectation of like work and busy culture. To pause, and
Molly: call back,
Ri: redirect and embrace your inner child for just, you know, like, a few minutes.
Molly: Yeah, yeah, I'm, you know, watching this piece which, all like, hour and a half of rehearsal I think one thing it makes me think about, it, it feels like a very simple piece on the surface, and maybe in like, even how it's been crafted, but once you start to really like dig into the layers of it, or the subtleties of it, and start to connect those dots to how we live our lives, or how we are kind of forced to live our lives, I think that's where you start to see the depth.
Molly: Because otherwise you're just basically playing Simon Says.
Ri: But that is. But I love it. I love the gamification of busy culture. There's something so devious in like, being like, we take it so seriously. We do. But actually it's all a game. It's a game for someone. They don't know it's a game. We don't know that we're playing a game. But it's really a game.
Molly: Yeah, it's all made up.
Ri: It's all made up.
Molly: Just pretend.
Ri: It's imaginary, but we make it real.
Molly: Yep.
Ri: Yeah.
Molly: Yeah. Alright. Any other Anythings?
Lauren: My question for the audience is when was the last time you swang on the swings? And my reminder for the audience is that you are so valuable and so special and so replaceable.
Molly: And we shall leave it there.
Molly: Hey, listener. Thank you so much for taking the time and energy to check out another episode of any other anything's greatly appreciate your presence. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to find out more about this podcast, the speakers and Grey Box Collective. You can also go to greyboxcollective.com/podcast for a full transcript of this episode. Thank you again for listening. Thank you again for being here. Greatly appreciate it. Take care of yourselves and each other.
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