The Museum of Contemporary Art’s performance series has long been noted for breaking down barriers between disciplines. But reimagining what performance means in a pandemic presented its own challenges. This fall, two pieces—Last Audience: a performance manual, created by Yanira Castro and her ensemble, a canary torsi, and Chapter & Verse: The Gospel of James Baldwin by musician Meshell Ndegeocello and a team of collaborators—give audiences a measure of control and community in a time of chaos and quarantine.
“It raises this idea of the audience as performers. And the different ways individuals navigate participating as part of a group feels so relevant right now as we all sort of walk around and make choices that really impact other people’s lives on a day-to-day basis in a way that maybe attention wasn’t drawn to before COVID hit,” notes Willis. Audiences who wish to participate can purchase the manuals, available via mail or PDF download, at the MCA website.
In a similar vein, Chicago dancer-choreographer (and Reader contributor) Irene Hsiao has created Merely a Mistake: A Score for your Door as part of “The Allure of Matter”, a joint project between the Smart Museum and Wrightwood 659. Hsiao drew inspiration from Liu Wei’s Merely a Mistake II No. 7, an installation created from doors and doorframes from demolished homes in Beijing. Hsiao invited community participants to shoot video of themselves in response to a score with instructions such as “Be Still; Divide Space; Enter and Exit.” She then paired the submissions and edited them, so people dance duets together. Says Hsiao, “The dancers include people of many ages and races—professional dancers and pedestrians and pets. I was amazed to see how well people who had never met, moving in different times and different places, could dance together.” The results can be viewed online at the Smart Museum website.
Each show will be recorded live in one of Pride’s Buena Park venues (sans audience and with cast and crew following social distancing protocols), and streamed twice only. The fall series kicks off with a benefit concert conceived by Johnson on September 30 (available in an open-ended run afterward) featuring writing by Tennessee Williams and Baldwin intertwined with original jazz music. v
