 Welcome to downtown variety presented by La Mama and culture hub I'm your host Maddie Barbara Backelman and for the first time hosting downtown variety I'm not in Brooklyn, New York, but I am in Amherst, Massachusetts with my parents beautiful scenery here as you can see This is downtown variety and if you've been here before you know, it's La Mama and culture hubs ongoing experiment Where we work with artists to uncover and discover the theatricality and storytelling possibilities of this emerging medium At the beginning of the pandemic we were producing the show weekly, which was a whirlwind and a dream and an Unprecedented learning experience if you will now we're producing this show monthly and To launch the upcoming La Mama and culture hub seasons We will produce a special edition of downtown variety Every edition is special and this one will be no different, but it will be entirely different This will be on September 18th, you heard it here first or you read it on playbill already, but this will be the season that approaches New new ways of creating art. It's dubbed the breaking it open season by La Mama and Yeah, it's a whole new model that they've never done in its 59 years of existence. I Keep on remembering that this is a historic moment and I Wouldn't want to experience it alone. I'm so lucky to be here and to have you here with me We're gonna go places tonight First we will travel to Nairobi, Kenya then It's off to the River Tens in London then to Berlin Germany for a little late night action and then to The Okanichu homelands also known of Orange County, North Carolina And then to sunny Los Angeles where it's 100 degrees. I've heard and Finally we'll return home to a tiny closet in the city Sounds like the first apartment that I rented from New York to Brooklyn It's too good And I don't have to say this whole this is the whole reason that culture hub was founded by La Mama and the arts in 2009 To explore how the internet and emerging technologies could foster artistic collaboration and international and cultural exchange The future is now So thank you first We go to Nairobi, Kenya Where our friends both theater company are standing by live and it's about three in the morning right now So without further ado Arroji Otieno Oh My god, so thank you Wait, do you have the live stream playing I just want to make sure I don't hear feedback you mean me. Oh, no, you sound great Hi and Hello, so this is Arroji Arroji. Can you introduce your incredible team? Yeah, yeah, yeah, so this is DJ Bruno Vassitile I did you do Bruno Vassitile He was playing the African shakers Amazing. Yeah, and my brother is at the background. Yeah He's on the camera And my name is Arroji Otieno. I was playing the Natiti. This is the liar. It's an extreme instrument Yeah, I was wondering because I realized that Never I had never asked what this instrument was called and and how it's built Yeah, so this instrument as I said, it's called the Natiti Natiti It's it's actually one of the oldest tools or equipment that we have my tribe is called the Luo and Yeah, the Luo tribe and we come from the northern part of Sudan So southern Egypt and we traveled with this instrument along the night So it carries a lot of our history It carries a lot of our stories. It's an ancient instrument The reason like this, um, I feel like this this instrument is important to me because it's the nucleus of Of african music is the nucleus of our music in our tribe and my art is about the combination of the now And the then so this instrument represents You know our our source. This is our resource and we take our resource And we use that inspiration to make the kind of work that you've seen Um in the screen Yes, and that's the work of bold theater company, right? Yes, that's the work of bold theater company. Uh, this particular work We collaborated by a wonderful wonderful lady called pauli rune Who I met at a wonderful wonderful place that was umbria Invited by la mama. So, you know, since it was like a dream come true, you know, I met a lot of you know, really interesting people and um, so what happened is the same way during the During the when the covered covered 19th thing happened We had a project that we were already showcasing or we are planning to showcase on stage But we had to put it online so that it continued And so I reached out to paula and asked Before and asked her to submit some work so that you know, she could share some work because we had a platform called bold memoir And kenyans on this side really loved how she worked And most of them asked for a workshop. So I requested if paula could do a workshop with a few artists a lot of people um What what you call a sub? A lot of people Um, the water's gone Whatever And then it's submitted. Yes. Thank you It was that simple and we got eight We got eight from kenya And also we got eight participants from paraguay. So this was the first time we were working with that with paraguay Most of us did not even know most of us only knew paraguay from football right With artists and they were just fabulous So what you think is um, we are going to launch this maybe also in a week's time and we'll see 16 pieces So that'll be acceptable to The worldwide web Yes, yes, please. It's gonna be on our first page And uh, and also maybe through zoom us. We are going to do say one last reunion and talk about the work Ah, yeah, yeah, I can't wait such powerful images and and you have such incredible artwork in your home and incredible artists in your home too Thank you very much. I'll be connected with you Thank you cool Well, I can't wait to see what bold theater company does next and I'll see it very soon Which is incredible that we get to see everything on on the internet like this Yes, cool. Okay next time Never leave. All right. Thank you Okay, a rojotiano and his incredible collaborators In both kenya and paraguay All right. Thank you bruno. Thank you herbert Cool. Okay. So next like I promised we are going all the way to london to the river tens and without further Oh, no, did I just start to do an accent? That's terrible. That's just terrible Um, okay. So we've got a long time lamama collaborator great jumps company repertory company member Peter case Dear little sister You'll be happy to know I now have a fantastic view of the river. You've always loved in fact Other than being in the water or indeed submerged within it the view from my place of residence Could not be better I feel safe here most times The sounds of the city slowly sighing its final breaths is diminished here Especially if I stay under the bridge It is good to be under the bridge Because I cannot see or be seen by the passing traffic The stones above me were placed by hands Long before all of the hands became contaminated long before the hands became a number to keep us apart That was when thoughts were clean and the mind was not infested with the pestilence When colpepper said the disease was not catching and did not move from person to person or house to house Do you remember that before time? I asked you that once If you remembered that when then you said What since the vermin and the disease spread throughout the city fell in commoner and king alike and what little system of social welfare Was in place was washed away with the many bodies floating in the river and the fires broke out And the kind people became criminals and the criminals became murderers and the murderers took the opportunity To take advantage of the kind people before eating them while the food ran out and homes became graveyards And graveyards became the pit and the pit is burning like a river which became the graveyard the home and the pit And serves us our dinners riding rats on the bodies floating downstream And when our friends died then our families died and the really rich people ran away and died and died And the impoverished stayed put and died and when holding became touching and touching became breathing and breathing became looking And looking became longing and longing became a long distance away to look listen touch and feel When the distance between us became 16 palms and 16 palms it has stayed And you came to our house and you told me we must go away Because the vermin had to get a disease and the disease had to get hatred and hatred had taken up arms And the wars would be small before they became big The when when you said you only wanted to look after ourselves That you only wanted to look after me and you said we should maybe get in a boat And float the boat out to sea and drift off onto the unpolished horizon That when Is that the when you mean I said yes And you said no That you had no memory of the when before you said that all you could see was mother's face Desiccated and half eaten by rats and father's skull chewed clean But whose gelatinous eyes still cried you went to get water To wash our family clean you came down to the river But you never came back So I am on the river that you loved my dear sister Eating the rats riding rafts of corpses as they float downstream I am near our house and these are the rats that ate our father and ate our mother and now I eat them You left me with their faces, which I keep with me in my isolation, but I do not have your face my dear sister I will keep paddling to stay under the bridge to keep away from the shore I will paddle while I eat and I will paddle as I sleep I will keep paddling until the world is dust along with my memories Much love your big brother Peter In case Holy shit Peter Hello, hello Oh, hello Can you hear me? Yeah, I can hear you Hey, Maddie Hey Hi How you doing? Okay, I'm okay. It's um It's only raining a little bit. Oh I don't even notice somehow the the rain isn't hasn't made its way into the live stream We should not crank it up a lot that creates more Peter how did you how did you how did you make? I guess my main question is what the hell And what is going on and how did you do this? Well, it's a good question. Uh I think it kind of came about for several several on several different sort of in several different layers maybe like the the the text and um I wanted to delve into isolation this idea of isolation and uh And obviously the experience of what we're all going through and A boat in the Thames seemed like um A good and very interesting metaphor if not a very literal literal one in terms of isolation when you're in a big city Um, and then I guess also just I want to experiment with working with these different places that one could produce Could make work Finding unique sites and Just exploring those possibilities really and it's been very difficult not to be able to do the work and to have the work stopped You know because of all this so Yeah, I mean, I've just been thinking about all the the Opportunities of distance not no longer. It's it's I mean it's a backwards way to think of it as an opportunity but you're a longtime great jones repertory company member and you've been in london and Now We're here making work together and I think that that What did you say said again, sorry, sorry your paddling got in the way. Oh, but that always happens Right. Don't worry But yeah, the opportunity of distance and that you can do you can collaborate with This company you've worked with so for so long and and with la mama It's made my um, it's made my it's made, you know, it's made the isolation so much more Colorable really just to be able to connect with the great jones rep rep and la mama, you know again In this way it meant a lot a huge amount to me. Actually, it's really I really have felt very far away for quite a long time It's great And just to reiterate here you are literally On the river 10s how we say it which I googled Yeah in a canoe in a canoe with a computer And a camera morning Right And revelers occasionally walking along the riverbank are people going out in london like uh, is there people out? Yeah, yeah, those people out people are right now. Um, I guess it's a bit slow for it's a bit quiet for a friday, but um That's to be expected. I would say um I was getting heckled a little bit ago, which was Which was nice to you know, it was nice to see at least Yeah, perfect All right, peter Thank you very much, netty. It's privilege first performance from from leany water You can take that accolade home with you and uh put it on your mantle I will Okay, see you soon I'm gonna paddle home On you go on you go Thanks, peter All right, it's hard to fully comprehend. I know Yeah, and he was in mud all over him. So I just yeah, and he also Burned his jeans. So I just there's a lot of things going on here any way now. We're going to go to another home in london by way Um split riches is a is a performance duo and many other things duo of peggy And lowest weaver and they found themselves in lockdown in london In this two-story house and they will be one of the resident artists of lamam this upcoming 59th season And we're going to show this video work that is That they've given to us for the evening to kick off the the work that they will continue to develop throughout the whole next Which we're so excited to so um peggy. Shaw is the first video artist Paintings here we go Hello, here. I am in isolation in london having a very good time in my backyard and Painting all the time. I just wanted to share with some of you my mask paintings because To me the mask is the symbol of all Unity right now where we're all in this together and we respect each other enough To wear a mask if you're sick and wear a mask if you don't want to get sick so Here are my mask paintings music from vivian store with the paintings She is working with us on our new show the last guest Peggy Shaw will see more from lowest weaver in a little bit But now um again as I promised we are going to berlin germany and los angeles. This is a collaborative duo Well, really trio um, you'll see this Is lisa muller trader chris limbach and michael ferrera Lisa and chris. I have you here But I think the truth is that we had a little problem with the sound Oh, really? I know, but can we hear you hear me now? I hear you just fine, and I've heard the sound the whole time But it we're having I just want to make sure it's going through the live stream So this has been our summertime curse But now we're here so Hello, here's lisa and here's chris So Look, I don't know exactly what everybody got. I mean, I got it all I got it all straight to the heart and now I see lisa covered in paint and Wind flow hair flowing in the wind and chris's hair Sweated on his forehead What's up What's this collaboration like? chris is in berlin lisa's in los angeles and um You guys have been working together Yeah, it's actually been maybe even easier now, right? Like because I've been here for a while and before that you were obviously like physically together But now that the virus We've been doing a bit of stuff Because everyone's doing it this way now. We feel all except for that. It's a bit late over there again Yeah, yeah, it's definitely bad time already and um yeah and we did collaborations a lot before and um Yeah, we just kept doing it kind of and adapted it to to the Streaming thing I guess Yeah, so um, this video this this What what we just saw can you tell me a little bit about What we saw and how you how you've made it? Yeah, I mean We throw the camera back and forth chris doesn't catch it most of the time he just doesn't so we've Throwing it to him He's unfortunately not here right now with me And yeah, he really is not so great at the game called camera catch. Exactly. Michael's not good at it in front of it. So, you know, he got um, so yeah, it's uh, it there's it's just us in in this space and then we um, we kind of Get it back and forth And what's it and I so some of our live stream viewers might not have heard all of the the live scoring that chris was doing um But can you tell us a little bit about the live scoring that you do and maybe show a little bit? just what you But what what each thing does No, usually yeah, what we do is is we try to treat sound and video Kind of the same way right like i'm thinking At an expanded cinema situation and having a video and doing live scoring to it I I just have a lot of machines here. I use for for sound generation. So I would like to maybe the most funny thing is this The milk frother Yeah, what you do that you use for making cappuccino's or something so I can I would use that for example, so good. I have a lot of tape machines some synths and but mostly working with feedbacks and um And electromagnetic waves that just pick up from the equipment itself. So it generates an own loop of sound That then interacts with the video Incredible and lisa your background is video art somewhat and a little bit too Yeah, I guess like uh, I um I'm a performer, but then I integrate media a lot because I yeah, it's kind of um A nice way of getting Now it's quite nice to get into the frame, but usually you know to get out of that frame that the the performative realm kind of Set to you and so I like going back and forth usually maybe in like a Performative exhibition. So I guess it's mostly what I do Wow You got a little uh, little painting. You got a little something uh, a little something there and you're uh, Not a michael and then I I got sweaty. So it's kind of on my hands and I do that a lot Yeah Right Cool Yeah, I got I got a lot of ice here. So I didn't get cut Didn't catch the blue. So I I bought like two kilos of ice to cool down my computers and everything So the paint didn't stuck with me. It just Totalist iced out of you Makes perfect It's so much better with that ice Well done. Yeah. Yeah, it's much better the computers love love the ice So Cool. Well, I'm glad nobody was harmed in the making of this. I mean, I hope but we don't know Back to your respective time zones, please enjoy the rest of your um late night in berlin chris and your Early evening in los angeles. Thank you Thank you very much. Thank you All right So We were that that's concludes the international portion of the evening Um, we were in Nairobi, Kenya, london, england and just berlin germany, which is Very exciting. Um We are now shipping back stateside where we'll have some more performances and In the interim I might take this moment to discuss my appearance my Lovely new earrings, which if you've been following downtime variety have been a minor motif a minor character If you will these are done by verna estes who is my longest best friend in the world um And oddly enough this shirt is also from verna and uh And my friend zoe who got it from this little store. I don't know if you might have heard of it in berlin They were actually in in germany. Yeah, it's called zara. I don't know if you've heard of it Just this little boutique they came across in germany so, um Here we are and and why don't I also take this opportunity to be um transparent We are getting our next performer in who has a multi camera setup, which we're trying to work out right now We've got one camera in and we're waiting for the next um How you doing? Good kind of reminds me of the pixar lamp So we've been doing downtime variety for Since march 20th of 2020 and we're going to keep going For as long as we need to and it'll change if we need it to too, but I just wanted to take this moment also to say that um If you have the possibility to donate would be deeply appreciated um because we're just Find in ways to serve Yeah, I think we should Yeah, so now we're going to um actually go to a A video the second in the series from split britches and um This is the next work, which is from lois weaver an incredible performer Oh garcy, uh I mean worth the wait. That's what I would say worth the wait Hello there mora would you yes? how Man that got me grooving the music I mean the dance and the music so good Original music, right? Yes, original music by mark gabriel little So amazing and is that a collaboration that you go to often? Yes, it's actually my brother That makes it so much better. Yes. It does make it better, but um We didn't always work together. We probably started Maybe our first I think want to say our first kind of largest project was about five years ago Five years ago Wow the family connections run deep in this piece Yes Yes, so So what's can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to create this piece and and where it's coming from? Yeah, um So I have a Other piece called they are still talking or see Wonny uh chalegi coffee um And actually I didn't even introduce myself newy died out with all. Uh, I mean gilohi digi young me chief chalegi. No, I'll let you madam escape uh I'm mora newy died chalegi coffee a long hair clan cherokee and madam escape But yeah, uh, so as a part of a larger piece which was about Our connections to our ancestors through breath our connections by gesture Our connections through trauma our connections through joy And then I started thinking about Those were more like about the long ago ancestors. Uh, maybe ancestors from 10 000 years ago that we never even But they prayed for us and uh But then I started thinking about the closer ancestors the people that I had That had taught me that I had grown up around that I had lived around and um And what their teachings were and what their actions were so the idea was to make a little base choreography off specific things from those people Yeah, so, um One of the pieces where I'm lifting up my legs and I'm falling over it I had my cousin uh midi my called my grandma cousin. She's like grandma She Had broken her leg when she was Younger and never they didn't have any money and so it it didn't heal right. Yeah Completely straight all the time. So You know when she had to get out of a chair She had to do this weird thing when she threw her leg straight and you know Hoisted herself up out of the chair. It was really amazing to watch her do this. Yeah, and she you know She didn't even even when she um had other mobility problems. She didn't want help with that. She said no because if If I get help now then I won't be able to do it later right Yeah So that's where the idea for the piece came from is from either movements or teachings from different people and that's such a Close way to meet a person through that gesture like that's so informative And and personal and everyday and casual but full And and you have those those numbers that you did with your hands What's the what's the significance of those numbers? Yeah, and before I forget I want to just say on ig live i'm going to be talking with the composer my brother 10 o'clock eastern time. So we'll be going tonight. Yeah tonight after the after party Yeah, that's the after party But the numbers four and seven Are very important to a lot of native people to us as the Cherokee people to a lot of native people in general and so That's why they're in there, but particularly one of the the ancestors Who for me, he's my ancestor because he taught me Even though he's not my blood ancestor was Andy Gerdid Josiah Geza, and he You know, he was one of those teachers that always Because he wasn't also a professor his you know teacher at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas And uh, he would repeat himself sometimes. So, you know, you know how teachers will always repeat himself And when he was just talking he could be talking about anything But a lot of times he'd come back to Florence You know, he'd say well, you know four and seven those are very sacred numbers to Indian people And he would go on and tell some other story. So that's in his honor just remembering Mr. Mr. Gerdid, you know the four and the seven And I love that too because um one of Lamama's buildings. Well really two, but so Lamama has 47 Great Jones street And three four east fourth street Oh, wow So The fours and the sevens going on Yeah Yeah cool Maura so good to meet you through Your ancestors and through this amazing performance, which I hear was the first you've done live In quarantine Yeah, um, my last performance was at caldera arts in Oregon sisters organ. It was um, I just finished a C and it was the residency showing It was a huge Beautiful space with beautiful wood floor an open window with you know, the woods and mountains And you know, all these people showed up from all over and so it was a was a full audience There are people standing in the back. So that was my last time performing. It was About two weeks before sat down You know, I'm glad it was I know And and so this you know You will you can't you all can't see but I have literally everything in this room pushed to one side and Yeah, I've made this stage here. Is that I'm sure everyone else has been doing what there's? So it's it's very different, but I'm just as happy to be doing it because It's nice to do something. It was nice to do something live. Yeah I feel like we should all share our Behind the scenes setups like the photo of the non stage that makes the stage possible I don't know how to do that Yeah, there's a reason it's not on stage Cool mora, you're amazing. Thank you so much. I'm so glad that we got to work together tonight tonight Cool Okay Thank you so much for having me. Bye. Bye all right there's the incredible mora and next We've got shana davis who is going to be a resident artist in lamamas upcoming season, which is a very special and incredible and exciting and We had her on last downtown variety So this work that you're about to see tonight is a continuation Of that work. So without further ado This is shana davis Okay Show me a white doll Show me a colored doll Show me a good doll Show me a bad doll A smart doll Show me the dumb doll Show me the prettier doll Why Show me the nigger How about the hardest working doll? Which do you think is most lonely? Which doll is easiest to find in stores? Who has a clear path to success? Which was raised with an absent father? Who is more likely to season their food? Which was taught to work twice as hard? And who learned that it's actually three times as hard? Who is a product of their environment? Who is facing daily racialized trauma? Who is believed in by their society? Which has more educational opportunities? And who lives in a food desert? Which is exposed to more air pollution? Show me the doll that's bilingual? in robotics Which doll is most likely to not find their skin tone in the makeup aisle? Who is more likely to still be in jail for a nonviolent marijuana charge? Which one wrote your textbooks? And which has an entire continent descending from royalty? Show me the doll that looks most like Michael Jackson? Show me the doll that has set music trends since the beginning of time? Show me the doll whose grandma has a plastic couch covering that squeaks every time you sit? Which doll has resilience in their bloodline? Which doll communicates safety and camaraderie with a single nod? Which is most like you? Which is most like you? Which is most like you? Shawna Davis Here she comes miss Shawna Davis Hey there I need you to unmute yourself I guess I meant it when I said sunny Los Angeles Very sunny Los Angeles. Oh my gosh And very hot I hear Yeah about 100 degrees but Damn Lovin it Lovin You're from Florida I am So Florida is no stranger to you That's true. I just saved it for a little while. I prefer to see Rather than the cold Hold it down in our respective quadrants of the Whatever So Shawna I first Just I'm so glad to Have you back on the show. That's incredible It's it's so great to continue working with you and You're one of these people who's starting to really Work from dance and from movement but to explore what it's like to create in a new way With this form and like You danced it you Created it you conceptualized it and Did you do the audio editing is what's the I am But yeah, I'm I'm coming into this new place where I'm trying to use dance as a tool um to tell a story outside of the like personium setting Um and for it to be something that I utilize Um and something supportive and I've never really Used or seen dance in that way. So Um actually in the making of this piece The movement is what I struggled with the most Have the idea I was really fascinated by the dull tests of The 1950s which helped round versus where the case board of education and helped integrate schools Um, so I was already really fascinated by that Um, I had this idea that someone older should be reading it So my mom read it and um, she actually went to segregated school. So it's Kind of a nice kind and she saw them integrate. Wow And yeah, um, I'm trying right now to find how my movement Fits into these different settings So I'm excited to be able to explore that book here and with the residency. Yes. Yeah um so So this piece came from these dull tests Yeah, which can you just tell me a little bit about those those tests? Yeah, so um, they asked the standard question that My audio began with like who's the prettier doll who's the smarter doll which one looks most like you um And they asked a series of these questions to black children On that all of the positive traits The black children the point to the white doll would attribute these positive things for the white doll and vice versa And they determined that they had a The kids had a low Very low self-image and that they were emotionally and physically damaged. So It's kind of hard. Um Because this test is super flawed Right, I'll just say this or that white or black. That's not the world that I really want to live in um, but it is A reality and it was a reality. So I thought about how to imagine Other questions and elicit a different response Without giving the answers away Yeah, and some of the questions I was like, ooh Good question and some of them are they they're just too spot-on Yeah Well Okay, well here I go the michael jackson question. I was like, ooh good question and then the um I mean obviously every question but the the bilingual in ebonics and then the um I thought that one that one line that you wrote the about the nod Was so powerful too. Thank you Yeah, I try to dig into my own Definitely, obviously My own experiences and what I'm proud of and Things that upset me and hearing my mother read these things over. Um Unless it's a certain emotional thing Thank you. Thank you Mama shana davis. Yeah, she's here. Yes She is Great shana Thank you so much. You're a star Okay So our last performance of the evening is coming at you very very shortly um That was the incredible shana davis and uh Next we've got josh william gelbs I'm gonna go behind the scenes real quick to prepare If we can Okay, so I'm gonna give you a little phrase um, and then we Can talk about it. Hopefully you can sort of um adapt it a little bit since I don't have a closet here with me And then bringing this like through again and actually When you're doing that can you bring your arms? around And then through and then I want to try adding and just like a little bit of constant here boom Boom and then by the time the final time when you come around here. Can you bring your feet? um On the diagonal and then looking at the camera And then maybe we have you walk downstage, but there's a draft of something that you can give a go Um, let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much Joshua william gelb With katie rose mclochlin his collaborator who it's gonna join us live and just has So I see josh and I see katie rose Hi Hey katie rose You did it we've done it how's the how's the audio check check There's always like some button that needs to be pressed before you can start talking Or like five Now audio and basically the vein of this entire project I like I like that as the um The less technical understanding of sound there's always some button, you know what I mean So wow, I mean you all have been working since the beginning of this whole Uh lockdown and And before that still right can you tell us a little bit about your collaboration and how you've been working together Sure Hey rose do you want to start? Um, josh and I have been working together for uh a little over 10 years, which is crazy Um Because time is just flying. Um, so we've known each other and we've collaborated on a number of projects before um I feel like josh actually you should talk about So yes, we've been working basically on this project theater and quarantine since the beginning of um the stay at home orders Like basically sort of the middle of march. Um josh, you should talk a little bit about what What you did what compelled you to build a tiny white space out of a closet? Maybe Yeah, well, uh first off probably worth mentioning. I live alone Uh, I don't know if I would have done this if it had been otherwise So I Had a lot of time on my hands and a lot of solitude to deal with and Uh, very quickly. I went through all of the like Random odd job household projects. I wanted to get done and I started looking at this closet and very quickly realized it was the same aspect ratio as my iphone and uh Started to imagine what it would be like to think of the closet as a new type of proscenium and uh very quickly painted it and uh cleaned it up and uh brought in katie rose and a bunch of other collaborators and we've also Uh, trying to explore what it means to make theater digitally and in the closet Which is much smaller, uh Then it appears on I know I was like wow that guy has a pretty big closet But I realized it's not too sweet too teeny deep too deep. It's not that big. It's not that big folks Don't get jealous. I got jealous. It's don't get jealous Um, that's so amazing. I'm wondering how How has this transformed you? Wow It's been really Rewarding being able to actually develop an artistic practice. I think theater artists in new york in particular Uh Don't have that ability. I have my own space Uh that I can work in and kind of You know be my own gatekeeper, uh is Uh really like a beyond anything I could have uh A dreamed would come of this right so yeah Yeah, and then of course the ability to work with these other artists who I mean otherwise You know to give them an outlet to be working has been really wonderful Right. I feel like that's such a huge part of it is just sort of breaking up the permission Of when you can do something and how which You know, it's not all good obviously, but um And and then we have new barriers like on like okay, I'm going to youtube or facebook Oh, yeah Those all those new territories and new terrains, but there's lots of obviously you've explored them deeply Well under technology itself, which is like impossible barrier As as we all learn because you know, it's we're always played by technical difficulties There's always a better program or a better piece of equipment and uh, that's the frustrating part But in some ways, I think the grappling with technology uh It has in some ways transformed Uh the theater I would have otherwise made into something that feels particularly Relevant now. I don't know if I would have said that about my work prior to that right Yeah, and and it's also something that is um A lot of people are feeling is is the the the both barrier and Opening of world that technology has the possibility of doing and just like but still for you and katie rose to be able to really explore these deep emotional places Through through the technology as opposed to it just being like look at this funky loop pedal I've got like that's not actually the story here. The story is Deeper somehow. I mean well you saw our dress rehearsal, which was look at this funky loop pedal. We've got But that's often I mean katie rose you can speak to that process because I I think Sometimes finding the toys is our way in totally it we found that that The way that we've started most of our most successful projects has been I mean The first piece that we ever made was called corners and it's just mostly a movement piece And and that was just josh being like hey, I turned my closet into a white box Like what does that mean? Um, and then he was like, oh, I found out that I can turn the box Um, and so we just made a very simple movement piece But also I was like josh. How are you feeling? What is happening in your life right now? Um, and so we sort of incorporated Like very much what was going on? You know in new york at that moment while we were making it And and it found out that it was this piece that was like deeply deeply emotional in a way that That I quite frankly and josh uses technology so much more than I do But as a movement practitioner, I you know, I'm used to just bodies and rooms That I found out these pieces could actually be like quite resonant and quite emotional Even though we're you know, we work together via zoom I you know, I choreograph without being able to be in a room with him But yeah, so we start with these like pieces of technology. Sometimes a piece of technology is a board And and sometimes sometimes a piece of technology is a looping pedal And then it's like, oh, what does this mean? What story does it tell like how? How can we use it in 15 different ways? Like what's most effective? And that's been fun the ability to have like to really explore together I feel like we probably Have more of a collaboration than we ever have before because it's you know, it's not like we go away and then come back It's like we spend hours sort of trying to figure it out and then like calling each other and then coming back and being like, oh I think I let's try this That's been really exciting. You don't have to come up with like a really good reason to work together. You can just have a I'm I'm bored or I I'm lonely or oh, I just have the smallest idea in the world and I want to share it with you It makes the collaborations a lot more I also there's there's this one line that a teacher of mine once said is that which is probably said often no solo show is made alone and The story is is so about this this character of josh in this void tiny box alone and that that reads so much but But the the actual story of the collaboration which I love that you brought it out in this short piece Is the relationship also that that of katie rose and josh, which is a Also, I mean, it's a disjointed friendship of of katie rose teaching the choreography without having another person there, but Kid Rose never been in the closet if if i'm correct. I mean since the past five months never not once um We have not seen each other face to face uh in five months Yeah Funny we were talking last night, um, which is Because beyond just being bored beyond just being lonely. We've been sort of building ourselves a pretty rigorous schedule. Yeah, but we do performances every two weeks live on my youtube channel and uh And last night we were talking after our show. We usually do thursdays um How the loneliest part is? You know after the show is over and we've had you know, we had a drink on over the phone together and Oh, there you go And uh, and then still we have to say goodbye and we're kind of left out to our own devices And I think in some ways we woke up this morning and we were planning to build one piece about a looping Pebble and then we just kind of sat in In that feeling from the night before and something else My my my trick because we've also been I relate to so much what you said because we have also embraced the sort of rigorous Yeah, they're enough working in some ways, but my and we would hang out afterwards and talk and be like, uh that mess up that mess up Oh, but that was great. Um my way of like commuting home or like changing is just to Bring back the space to neutral because I've always destroyed my my home Oh, yeah, josh is like josh. Yeah josh can never quite The thing about our rigorous schedule is that josh actually can't be like he has to strike the day after the shows But then he has to get me was probably in the middle of rehearsal for another piece that that loads that loads in the next day too good well, you guys are doing such incredible work and um it's gonna continue and For for all sorts of reasons not just because of quarantine. I keep on saying that there are always reasons that we can't Be together and that's not a good thing But that's reality and we we need to find out how to have meaningful collaborations and meaningful stories which So exciting that you're doing Yeah, thank you so much for having us. See you soon. Thanks natty. Thank you Okay That's all show so Thank you for joining us and thank you for sticking through if you have stuck through from the broken stream to the new stream Um, as you can see, it's a work in progress and we're working on it and we couldn't do it without you Um you watching at home? um Join us on september 18th and join us in this whole ongoing unfolding experiment to find out how we can Keep sharing our artistic voices through social isolation Stay safe A flower for you Okay We got a lot of credits credits here. See you Later. I was a bum