Jason Trucco is the co-director of Hi-Fi / Wi-Fi / Sci-Fi - Predictions Past, Present, & Future took time out of technical rehearsals to answer our 6 Questions. Hi-Fi / Wi-Fi / Sci-Fi runs February 2 - 19 at The Downstairs @ La MaMa.
1. How did your working with CultreHub come about?
The simple answer is meeting Billy Clark,
CultureHub's artistic director. And the discovery that he's more than a dynamic
artistic director, he's an artist with guts and imagination. My life is
enriched when I collaborate with fabulous people and Billy is one of those rare
guys.
Yes, Billy & I talked about these plays that
we're now directing together upon our meeting. For me, these early La MaMa plays
had inspired the whole adventure of my professional life. Pleasingly, for
Billy, there were obvious personal connections, too. His artistic development
was rooted in La MaMa's legacy and he was already investigating technologies
that these plays anticipated in the generation before they were possible, when
they were science fictions. CultureHub's day to day is investigating the future
of dramatic storytelling, art & technology.
One example of Billy's connection, take the
possibility of live telepresence performances with Seoul Institute or the Arts
in Korea, which Billy had been developing for years. Camera Obscura, one of the short plays in our Hi-Fi / Wi-Fi / Sci-Fi
collection, written in 1968, tells the story of two lovers endeavoring to
communicate by the same telepresence means. And the play questions how the
challenges therein work.
Amazing to think about, Billy had been experiencing
those challenges first hand in the same place where Robert Patrick had imagined
them as science fiction on stage a generation ago. And Billy decided to join me
in a mission to re-stage these classics for a new generation of experimental
theater audience with superstars from downtown theater's past, present, and
future. Our electric cast includes Augustine Machado, who performed at the
Cino, and Valois Mickens, a longtime member of La MaMa's Great Jones RepetoryCompany, along with Great Jones' latest generation, John Gutierrez and
CulturHub's Yeena Sung. Three generations of inspiring people form our
ensemble.
2. What was interesting to you about Robert
Patrick's work?
Yes, Robert Patrick is my favorite playwright. And
the plays that I love most are his one man, one woman mini-plays. The maestro
takes a traditional situation and tells it in a brand new way. He'll tell a
love story backwards. He makes me laugh like hell. Most experimental of New
York's experimental playwrights.
3. How are you integrating the use of technology
into the piece?
All art is technology. Even paint. That's how I
approach it. And, as the title of our show suggests, we are putting hi-tech
next to low. Make believe, raw wood sets, telepresence, immersive A/V. We're
really mixing it up, as appropriate for a show about past, present, and future.
In Hi-Fi / Wi-Fi, we have explored new
technologies that may change how people think about theatre. As you know, live
telepresence in a work about the ways technology -- Skype, FaceTime, video
conferencing -- enhances and conflicts with communication between two lovers.
Yes, that's on the surface. And there are many ways that we've used, or custom
developed new technologies, that may not be apparent to a person at
first. Consider this: The text describes a five second delay, which mixes
the lovers up. We, meaning our ensemble of lovely and talented artists and
technologists at CultureHub, took the reading literally and rehearsed with a homemade
audio video system with a lag that was five seconds exactly. The technology
drove the actor's pace and performance. It changes the play reading dramatically!
4. What is the last good book you read?
Exodus by God, as told to Moses. Yes, I really find
the Bible to be worth reading again and again. And this book contains the
script for the world's most successful ongoing work of interactive
storytelling, the Passover Seder.
5. Who inspires you?
Thankfully, my life is filled with inspiring people.
The person I've been shaking my head in amazement about lately is Sang Min
Chae, our technical specialist on Hi-Fi / Wi-fi / Sci-Fi. Sang Min is
a visiting student intern from Korea's Soul Institute of the Arts. On the night
that he arrived from Korea, he began working with me and Billy on a very
challenging technical glitch with my good friend and collaborator, Allee
Willis. She's a very vocal Grammy, Emmy, Tony Nominated and Tony Winning, Webby
award winning performer. And he saved our necks.
Computers are divas, very demanding of special
attention. Sang Min has a way of approaching every creative and technical
challenge as an opportunity to be excellent. He stays as long as it takes to
finish the play to its best shape for showtime. He wears many hats,
cinematography, projection, model making, Virtual Reality, editing, lighting,
programming. And he's courageous in trying new approaches. He's humble, strong,
communicative. And, mostly, he's a joy to be around. We all laugh a lot.
The guys on the last play called him Slam Dunk. And
he's saved our necks more than once, with an unexpected yet appropriate
solution to any challenge we meet. Experimental playmaking is all about meeting
challenges creatively. Sang Min is an inspiring new gunslinger in experimental
theater town.
6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
Working at La MaMa means finding an artistic
family. Yes, there are other wonderful places to work. And,
likewise, there are many wonderful old ladies worth visiting but you still
visit your grandmother, even if she lives further than those other old ladies.
You know how visiting your grandmother is somehow different?
La MaMa, boldly led in Ellen Stuart's legacy by Mia
Yoo -- with the most talented office of artist slash every other job --
is a family business. Like my grandparents operated. And, while many
institutions claim to support groundbreaking work but don't have the stomach to
test ideas in front of an audience until they have been tested elsewhere, La
MaMa is continuing a tradition of always being new.
Just as Robert Patrick is the most experimental of
the experimental playwrights, CultureHub is the most experimental of La MaMa's
experimental companies. Within a legacy of experimenting: that's where I feel
most at home.
_____
La MaMa and CultureHub present
Hi-Fi / Wi-Fi / Sci-Fi
Predictions Past Present and Future
Written by Robert Patrick
Directed by Billy Clark and Jason Trucco
February 2 - 19, 2017
Thursday - Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 3pm
*additional performance Monday, February 6th at 8pm
The Downstairs @ La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003
Tickets: $25 Adults; $20 Students/Seniors
For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE
