Princeton Atelier: Two Sided Plays

with Laurie Anderson
assisted by Perry R. Cook
Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:20, 185 Nassau 219

Registrar's Course Description

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"What to Do Until the Psychiatrist Comes

(An Evening of Final Project Performances)
April 30, 2009, 7:30 PM, Matthews Studio, 185 Nassau

"Macbeth" Lainie and Markus	"Academic Hubris" Josh	"What to Do" Kate and Mara	"New Prosthetics" Anne and Harrison
"You're The Boss" Ryan and Rachel	"Scene 72" Betsey and Samson	"Hawaii" James and Ingmar	"What a Pleasure" Glenn

Show day schedule
4:30 PRC there, space available
6:00 call, all hands on deck
7:00 house opens
7:30 Showtime!

April 29, Tech/Runthru in Matthews Space:
10:00 PRC there,
folks drop by to check out space, tech, rehearse
4:30, Laurie arrives, run/tweak pieces
7:30 Program Order

April 28, Tech in Matthews Space:
12:30 Perry Loads in Equipment
folks drop by to check out space, tech, rehearse

No Meeting April 21st

For April 14th:

We'll be talking a bit theoretically about structure. 

Please bring in two examples of structures that use 
opposition-can be amy media. 

We'll also discuss final performances, and scheduling
for run-throughs/rehearsals.

No meeting on the 21st, and we won't meet again 
until run throughs on 29th.

Project 3 Videos:

Three pieces of text, a minute or so each
Three sounds (sound makers, sound/music files 3 minutes or so)

James	Lainie	Mara
Sam	Kate	Mendi
Betsey	Anne	Ingmar

For March 31 and April 7, 2009: Sound Tech Days!

Laurie brought her rig.  
Perry brought some stuff to demo.
Konrad brought some new stuff he's working on for Laurie.
Ben and Perry demoed Bio-Control for Singers (VAChorale)
You will bring:
Three pieces of text, a minute or so each
Three sounds (sound makers, sound/music files 3 minutes or so)

March 24, 2nd Projects (Operas), Frist Theater

-Make a five minute performance.
-Write a dialogue using pronoun protagonists
(Choose between I/you he/she us/them)
-Use 3 different media
-Performance must include a sad song, an ad, and 
a moral dilemma.

Rachel and Kate: Mary's a Bitch	Mara and Glenn: Tough Crowd	Sam: Donna Donna
Mendi and James: Parable	Ryan and Josh: Of Mice and Men	Markus and Ingmar: The Riemann Hypothesis
Lainie and Betsey: Decadence	Special Bonus Duet!

First meeting: Who?

• Laurie Anderson, Glenn Brown, Josh Lavine, Markus Kneer,
  Ryan Irwin, James Krendel-Clark, Ingmar Saberi, Kate Poole,
  Mara Nelson-Greenberg, Rachel Younger, Samuel Nicholson,
  Lainie Fefferman, Anne Hege, Mendi Obadike, Perry Cook

2nd meeting:

• Raids on human consciousness : writing, anarchism, and violence / Arthur F. Redding
• Don DeLillo writings on terrorism, etc.
• Joined by Betsey Biggs, Sound (Media) Walks
            Check out Princeton's Sonic Fragments Festival
• Some on Sets
• Some on Audiences
• Carson's Frapp Dialogs/Interviews
• Our Works in Progress

Third Meeting: February 24, 1st Projects (Operas), Frist Theater

Josh and James: Big Dog	Anne and Rachel: Motor Skills	Sam and Ingmar: Canicula
Katie and Ryan: Thailand	Lainie: Dog/Motor/Catastrophe	Glen and Mendi: 180
Markus and Mara: Untitled

Thoughts: Difficulty of starting a show/performance
Really great title is hard, but helps so much.

Assignment for next time:
Bring two texts- each about a page or 3-4 minutes if spoken.
Can be any source - novel, manual, ad copy, blog - whatever.
The voice and style of the two pieces should be very different
but they should have a similar subject (loosely interpreted!)

Some "filters" Laurie has used:

• Piece with Flashlights (and fiddle).
• Contact mic in bridge of glasses.
• Too much press? Not enough time to create?
  Solution: Cloning! video interview.
  Male (Video distortion and vocal pitch
  shifting and fake facial hair).
• It's our pleasure to serve you...
• Videos for MTV etc. to placate record companies.
• Hansel and Gretel (Clone)

Many read their two texts. Dinosaurs, digestion, waitressing, eugenics, punishment, genocide, Glengarry, Glen Ross, Gatsby, impeachment, architecture, modern music,

For next week, March 10: The News!

Pick a story from the front page of the newspaper - print or electronic. From the same front page (or -if the source is electronic- from ten stories featured that day) choose two characters. Write a four minute argument or conversation between these two. Set it in some form of transportation.

• February 24, 1st Projects (Operas), Frist Theater
• March 24, Midterm Project, location TBA
• April 29-30, Big Show, location(s) TBA