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You can also download the video here (mp4, 2.6 GB):
https://archive.org/download/realityplayings-2009-04-18/realityplayings-2009-04-18.mp4
Recorded at Temescal Art Center, Oakland, California.
Ah, last night’s performance went to the core of the work. Starting from very little to work with… Except the beautiful space and set… And blooming into a rich expanding piece of music, dance, and liquid medium erotic reality of not being sure of anything. Starting with the sour face woman in the shadows on the bleachers. Why did she come to something which was advertised as:
“REALITY PLAYINGS: experiments in experience/participation performance…
Frank Moore, world-known shaman performance artist, will conduct improvised passions of musicians, actors, dancers, and audience members in a laboratory setting to create altered realities of fusion beyond taboos. Bring your passions and musical instruments and your senses of adventure and humor. Other than that,
ADMISSION IS FREE! (But donations will be accepted.)?
Such performances are designed to expose, expand, trespass boundaries… Not to define and stay within them! Ah, age-old questions! And no particular answers!
So starting with the sour face and the two dudes who weren’t giving much more, I just followed the bread crumbs into the void! I had the one guy chose something in my thick book of my writings to read. He picked one of the longest, most dense pieces, The Magical Cave Lovers. (
http://www.eroplay.com/Cave/reality_playings/reality_playings_arp09/index.html#cavelovers ) And he read it intensely, melting into it as time expanded. During the reading, I had the Asian guy undress Linda and Jen and put their beads on them (so I wouldn’t get shit from Betty, our eighty year old church going neighbor this time for not having nude bodies for her beads!) The ritual had started! After the reading, I asked the reader to be my keyboard player for the night. He agreed! At that point Charles, the guy who did the dance with me last time, entered, carrying a horn case. I acted like he was a cast member … I gave him shit for being late, missing the woman freaking out. Playing along, Charles said that usually happened later in the performance. He unpacked his horn… some weird saxophone, whatever, and sat beside me and jammed with my vocals. He switched back and forth between his horn and singing with me… Linda and Jen danced nude, slides projected upon their bodies. The keyboardist turned out to be hot! At some point Tomek showed up with his accordion and joined in! He switched to the roto-toms, which he fell in love with. At some point I got rid of my board to join Linda and Jen dancing, still singing with Charles until he had to leave. After the jam /dance everything had transformed. The two guys actually started talking about how the performance affected them. The keyboardist felt vulnerable in a good, new way. I showed them the warning sign that I had over the doorway of every performance for years.
WARNING!
ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!
THIS PIECE MAY BE THREATENING
TO YOUR EVERYDAY REALITY.
THIS PIECE MAY CAUSE QUESTIONING
OF THE COMMON MORALITY.
THESE SYMPTOMS MAY APPEAR DAYS AFTER THE PIECE
WITHOUT WARNING…EVEN IF DURING THE PIECE,
YOU MAY FEEL AS IF NOTHING IS HAPPENING…
OR YOU MAY EVEN ENJOY IT. BUT ABOVE SYMPTOMS
MAY STILL APPEAR, LEADING TO RESTLESSNESS,
AND EVEN TO RADICAL CHANGE.
ENTER
The above is the version of the sign that we have on the website.
We shifted back to the sour face woman. Corey said he started to think she might be a plant. This started us talking about my history of using plants in performances… And of people appearing to be plants when I hadn’t planted them. Then I read the piece, The Rehearsal, (
http://www.eroplay.com/Cave/reality_playings/reality_playings_arp09/index.html#rehearsal ) which I wrote for the open audition part of the night. As we read it, it became uncanny how Sour Face captured at least the beginning of the role I was auditioning for! Was she a plant? Who else was a plant? What is the nature of performance? What is the nature of reality? Pretty good night’s work! And they didn’t want to go!
Tomek was on his way to a music festival in Czechoslovakia. He is planning to incorporate some of my guerrilla style of performance… Such as engaging people in conversation. So the work spreads!
More:
http://www.eroplay.com/Cave/reality_playings/reality_playings_arp09/index.html
