 Those of you who have just arrived, well okay, two things. The reason I'm using this microphone is because we hope at some point in the middle of my speaking or some other thing happening that we will actually be streaming this event live. And there are people watching are waiting for the speech to come up. In Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver, House parties in LA and in Chicago. Singapore, you must be Singapore. So we have to speak into these mics so that they can hear us. So shout out to all of you watching in internet world, wherever you are. We're here at Georgetown University and this is a program of the American Voices in Plain Institute. And as much as I appreciate the round of applause, we really need to give a big round of applause to the Andrew Mellon Foundation that's in the house. We're advancing the infrastructure for new play development nationwide. And that is at the good graces and the great wisdom of the Mellon Foundation that we're doing that work here. And this convening is part of the institute. The house lights are out. We have an extraordinary group of participants who have been here all weekend. And I just, again, one more round of applause if you could hold it for one second. But these guys started talking yesterday afternoon at around 6 o'clock and I didn't let them stop until about 6 o'clock when we drove for dinner tonight. And they've been talking about the state of device work in the American theater today. Even trying to decide what device work means. And actually, even more than that, trying to decide if we care what it means. Because if we know what it means, it's perhaps to put a box around something that we've read and not put a box around it. So here we are talking about device work all weekend and we haven't actually seen or talked much about the work itself. And you're here tonight to participate in that. So thank you guys for all your energy all weekend to get this convening going. So round of applause for our participants. And all these thank yous are important. How's the internet doing? Oh no, that's dull. And so then, lastly, the front row here, these guys are great souls. This is the group of people, and I'm going to ask you all to stand up and turn around. This is the group of people who volunteered to be the guinea pigs tonight for our master teachers lecture demos which will be four samples of the kinds of work and the way work is made from four of the ensembles that were participating this weekend. But here are our guinea pigs. Please stand up and turn around and think about what they signed up for. They just didn't happen to do it. So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and start the program. And we're going to start it with the fabulous Kirkland of the Ruby Camp. So I've been trying to find a way that I can pray. And that's a really difficult proposition for an agnostic lapsed Saturday night. Who called me? That's not stopped me. So I want to try it with you guys. So I wonder if you'll all bow your heads and close your eyes. And if you're on the internet now keeping your head bowed out in your eyes please. I want you to raise your hand when any of the following phrases apply to you. And there's no limit to the number of times you can raise your hand. Alright? Raise your hand if you feel like I want to have fun. I want to live with abandon. I don't want to worry too much about what other people think of me. And if that means sometimes I'm going to risk giving a little embarrassed to you. I want to be a little bit embarrassed a little bit more often. Raise your hand if you feel like that. Alright great. Now raise your hand if you feel like I want to be more serious. I read the works of Chekhov and Tolstoy. I read Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath. Now I like when the notes read a little bit and shine. When I read stuff like that I feel like I want to train myself to express the weight and depth of my emotions and thoughts. I want to be more serious sometimes. Oh great. Now raise your hand if you feel like I want a day off. I want to step out of my life and go to some shitty beach town like Corpus Christi, Texas. Not some fancy European beach but a place where I can wear a skiffy bathing suit and drink wine coolers and listen to John Hoover mellowing camp and really understand what he's singing about. Who here wants that kind of day off? Alright, that's nice. Alright, I want to work harder. Not the frustrating kind of hard work, banging your head against the wall doing the same thing over and over but the kind of hard work that's a pleasure to do. I want to get in one really hard day's work and I want my friends to be there with me and I want to laugh through it all and I want there to be plenty of food and good strong coffee to carry us into the night. Now raise your hand if you feel like there are people in this room that I want to steal into my life. There are people in this room that I want to take away and have with me the next time I device theater or write a grant or go see a show. Raise your hand if there are people in this room that you want to steal into your life and make a part of your art and work. Now raise your hand if there are people in this room that you want to steal into your life and do a little more than device to me. Raise your hand if there's someone in this room that you want to kiss or cuddle or give a hickey too or get a hickey thumb. Raise your hand if there are people in this room that you want to get your responsible with. Finally, maybe there are some of you out there who feel like I want God to turn out to be real and I want to feel God's presence in my life and in the lives of my friends and family. When I open my eyes I want to feel renewed and filled with the spirit of God which may be very much like the spirit of fun or the spirit of good hard work or the spirit of vacation or the spirit of the people in this room. Alright thanks, you can open your eyes. Will my new friends come up? Do you wish you had a microphone friends? Do you have more friends too? I have more friends. That's awesome. Now this will work perfect. Are you also my friend? Now I feel like why just five friends? Yeah I want to share. This is going to be so good. So I'm with the Rue Mex. I was just talking to Jeff and I was saying how weird it is. We're talking about the Vice Theater but you sort of don't know anything about the Rue Mex if you just know Kirk because there's six Rue Mechanicals. It's sort of like just sending your arm to a conference. I don't know what it's like. There's six Rue Mechanicals and we've been making theater together for 15 or 16 years. I think we're a collective. There's six artistic directors. We do everything by consensus for the most part. There's a working company of about 30 designers and actors and directors and writers and all sorts of people. And we sort of don't have a process. We actually sort of avoid process as much as we can and make a new process every time. So what to do with you what to do with you friends? I think to become a part of our work recently is that we've had a more sort of curatorial approach that we just ask everybody in the company and in fact everybody in the community and neighbors and friends to make something in the sort of theme of what we're doing and then we slowly sort of cobble it all together. So I thought I'll just do like if the Rue Mechanicals were here today and they said let's make something this is the sort of thing I'm into right now and that I'm doing so this is what we've made. And actually some of this is some of the question work that I do in Melanie Joseph and I are doing some of this work too. So as you confuse you in later it's like I found you shows what purpose. So first we're all going to play in a second but first I'm just going to play with one person. Hi what's your name? My name is Rachel. What's your earliest memory? In preschool having snacks and saving my family. That's great. Would you be surprised if I told you that never happened? How old were you when that happened? What kind of documentation exists for this evening? Video tapes or photos? How many people would agree to your version of this event? My mother. And how old did you say you were? 24. And how old are you now? 21. Alright so if you were 3, how many years have passed since you had this memory? This is an 18 or 19 year old memory. What else do you have in your life that's that old? Would you drive a car that was 18 years old? You know what sort of upkeep is an 18 year old car? I would probably have to be checked pretty often. What sort of upkeep do you think memories take? I would probably have to think about them pretty often. When you're not thinking of a memory, what do you think is happening with it? It's harder to bring it back into your brain than it's harder to remember. Is it fair to say that memories are the oldest things that you have in your life, older than most of your appliances in your car? How old do you expect to become? I think I'm about 80 or 90 so I hope to be the oldest 80 or 90. That's great. How far away is 80 or 90 from your president? 60 or 70 years. What do you most hope will happen to you in the time between now and then? I hope that I'll find out what I really want to do. Are you afraid of dying? Do you think it's possible that you could really enjoy dying? Under what circumstances do you think dying would be the most fantastic? I'd appreciate a blinding bed if there were enough ones around you and knowing that it's much harder to go. Would you allow everyone in this room to wish that for you?