A meeting in San Francisco

Shannon, Liam and I spent 30 hours together in San Fran this past Sunday/Monday.
We were there because Sojourn is the keynote guest/artist in residence at the American Association of Theater and Education Conference in August, and the three of us were meeting with the hosts at the conference hotel (Parc 55) and choosing 4 sites in the hotel for our site specific workshops/performances with conference participants.

A big side result of the trip (and actually a reason we wanted to do it now) was to have a day together to also work on OTT. We get alot done together, us three. Ginger Ale, tea and lobby snacks not withstanding, its all work for us on the road.

First, thanks to those of you who have shared responses to the post before this one. If you haven't, please, go to it, read it and reply in the comment section. Its really helpful.

Some sharings from our meeting in San Fran, mixed with discoveries/decisions i've been having/making:

Act 1- we continue to explore how these memorial services with the meta research angle are what they are, but also have some mystery of intent held within them...something that isn't as simple as "we are here doing this thing and this thing alone.." There has to be space for the end of act 1 to include some kind of formal and content 'rupture' (to borrow shannon's term)...we can't simply end Acct 1 and then like tour guides, say- everyone on the buses...very unsatisfying. So we are searching for that idea, that will no doubt be connected to the framing of Act 2, and the reason Act 3 needs an audience to actually accomplish its task.

Act 2- we have buses, and a good price. Sadie, well done. Liam, great work on this with Sadie.
We had some really good conversations about how the video on the buses maybe wants a relationship to the scrapbook of Act 1...that the film we watch was made by an Act 3 character as a history of the family/community/state...but we also don't want to follow a scrapbook with a scrapbook, even if the medium has changed...that is it has to be more than that formally...and if Act 1 was the scrapbook, almost unfiltered in terms of its perspective at the memorial (almost), the act 2 document has to be more complicated...it has to prepare us more for how perspectives on urban and rural collide, and even contradict each other...for instance, the mollala bus watching a film made by the portland side, but with an actor as a mollalan on the bus countering it at times for the mollala audience...this is an incomplete thought, but we are thinking...and wanting to get a head on this soon so our awesome video team (brian and scotty) working with shannon can start some pre work.

Act 3- we lost the crater.
I know, the video got me excited too.
But the company that owns it is starting construction july 1, and we lost it.
Take a moment, mourn a cool possibility gone, and as we have, move on.
We spent time in that San Fran lobby poring over google earth and looking at other sites; Liam has already documented some others, and goes back this week. We will not settle- we will not try and duplicate the crater. We will find something new that is dramaturgically exciting, with clear opportunities and clear discoveries to be made... our strongest interest right now is actually a HS football stadium and the lots and field and bleachers around it...more to come.

Other details-
Design...especially regarding costume and sound...i have been thinking about how 1980 is not the 80s...its really the late 70s...especially in rural OR and even Portland.
And I have been listening to some ELO...especially Telephone. And for some reason, Miles Davis' classic "Kind of Blue"...

keep watching this blog.
Read and reply to this, but especially the entry before.

Best- M