The fabulous Julius Ferraro has been conducting interviews with some of our SoLow artists. We'll be featuring them here on the blog leading up to and through the Festival. Thank you Julius! And don't forget, you can view the entire lineup of artists in the full SoLow listings!
CLEAR TIMING & A
GO-WITH-THE-FLOW ATTITUDE
So Cruel: A Sibling
Serenade combines
the great outdoors (of Queen Village) with the comfortable indoors (of your
iPod earphones). Audiences will be led along sidewalks, street corners, and
tiny urban micro-parks by author/performer Amelia Longo, while a story of
filial strife unfolds through poetry and movement. Eager with questions, we
caught up with Amelia, and the show’s director, Liz Green, who talked about a
production process full of firsts for both of them.
SoLow Fest: What are
you doing in this show that you never would have done if not for the SoLow
Fest?
Liz
Green: Learning GarageBand, directing traffic, and getting to know the guy at
7-11.
Amelia
Longo: Creating this piece at all. Making work seemed like a big production
before, but I've realized how possible it can be. Also, a lot of firsts for me,
including performing and self-producing. And climbing over things to throw
water balloons.
SF: What have you
learned from the process so far?
AL:
I've learned how hard it is for me to focus on writing, performing, and
producing at the same time, which is a totally worthwhile challenge. And how
generous and amazing the performance community is—once I started talking about
this show, folks started offering to help out, like Sarah Gladwin Camp coming
in and helping me add movement. Oh, also I've learned a great dance. You should
come see it.
SF: Tell us a little
bit about the working relationship between the two of you.
LG:
This is Amelia's first time performing a piece like this, and working with
either people who don't define as performers or who are performing for the
first time is one of my favorite things to do, so we were a natural match!
Amelia's a great performer, because she is willing to let us watch her as she
struggles to understand the world around her. It is very vulnerable and
relatable, so my job was basically empowering her to show that and giving her a
strong structure to work within.
AL:
One of my biggest fears initially was that I'd suck, and a director would get
mad at me for not knowing the basics. I had worked with Liz before a bit, but
was super psyched to learn about her background working with non-performers.
Liz has been great at encouraging me to push my boundaries, to try new crazy
ideas, and then to settle on just a couple of the crazy ideas. Also she once
made me climb a scary wall under 95.
SF: What unique
challenges have you faced by putting your show outdoors? What have you done to
subvert them?
LG:
Being outside means working with a huge canvas, which can make it hard to
direct focus, but also allows for some extraordinary things to happen. We've
subverted the power of this huge space by spending a lot of time going from
small space to small space, playing in each little corner, against each huge
wall, and in each intersection and trying lots of things until we find
something that clicks for that space, then we moved on, bit by bit.
SF: Audiences will be
listening to a pre-recorded track on headphones while watching a live
performance—so in a way you have two shows going on at once. What unique
challenges come up from making these two worlds connect?
LG:
Keeping the audio in headphones brings the audience into a world we have a
little more control over. So "controlled world" in the headphones,
and "unpredictable, crazy world" everywhere around you. We also had a
strong story arc and outline before we started piecing together the audio, and
that has been our guideline. The story drives the audio, the audio drives the
action. Once we had that assembly line down, things fell into place.
AL:
There's one moment where live Amelia interrupts the recording, which involves a
strange balance of clear timing and cues with a go-with-the-flow attitude.
Actually, that describes most of the show.
So Cruel takes place outdoors in Queen Village on June 22, 23,26, 28 at 7 pm. Reserve tickets and obtain venue address at socruelphilly@gmail.com. PWYC $5.
Julius Ferraro is a Philly freelancer. He writes regularly for Art Attack and his blog, Notes on Words.