Out Of Isolation - Rehearsal - 1986

You can also download the video here (mp4, 1.7 GB):
https://archive.org/download/out-of-isolation-dwinellehall-022086/out-of-isolation-dwinellehall-022086.mp4

Recorded February 20, 1986 at Dwinelle Hall, University of California, Berkeley.

Frank originally wrote the play to have something to do with a guy, Gary, who would direct it. He wrote it as a prose poem.

From Frank’s diary, January 1, 1986:
Gary and I held auditions for our project. The actor who we picked does have good instincts … but we are worried about her limits in depth and insight. We have dropped the nude scenes because of her. But still she is having problems being as vulnerable as we need her to be for the piece.

From Out Of Isolation:  A History of the Video, Thursday, September 19, 1996:
Anyway, when we were ready to cast the play, the director just chose an actress from the very first audition because he didn’t think we could get what we needed, so he settled...even though I told him when I direct I usually spend months finding the willing person for a part. But he was the director. The actress made it very clear from the start she wouldn’t do nudity. So the director threw out the nudity, not realizing that the nudity was not the real problem. The woman had a hard time even touching me! But the kicker was the actress saw the play as the nurse getting JIM out of the institution and into “the real world”. She kept making Jim look out a window to motivate him. I finally suggested to the director that he should tell her there ain’t no window. She totally freaked out and wrote us a Dear John letter. At that point he gave up on the project.

(This is a video of one of the rehearsals with this actress.)

It took me a year after that to cast it. Linda Sibio had been in several of my ritual performances in Los Angeles ... and she is a great performance artist in her own right. When I couldn’t find anybody in the San Francisco bay area, I asked her. She is very picky about what she enters into, but once she commits, she will do anything. We went down to L.A. for a week to shoot it. I had planned the first day to rehearse the whole piece ... but when we were on the mat ... without my board or Linda Mac ... Linda Sibio just took off her clothes and eroplayed with me for two hours ... and of course I’m flexible! Afterwards she said it was what she needed to get into the space/role. So we just shot the piece straight through each day for four days. I just spent a half hour before each day’s shooting going over with her the needed changes. The rest was improv.

Here is final edited video with Linda Sibio: https://archive.org/details/outofisolation

Text from original poster:

LITTLE SHOP OF PASSIONS
free series of live performances
supported by a grant from
The National Endowment for the Arts

7 p.m. at Rm. 125 Dwinelle, U.C. Berkeley, 1986

Frank Moore is internationally known for his mischievous avant-garde performances which at first appear childishly simple, but which devilishly suck the audience into a surreal and sensual underground where even serious can become silly without taboos to spoil their fun. Each piece is designed to goose your mind and morality … among other things.

Thursday, February 20
Out of Isolation – A passion play, directed by Gary Thomsen, about two special people unlocking each other from their prisons. A dance of melting communication, an opera of noises.