zoe|juniper are touring their piece the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t all along the East Coast. This weekend they were reviewed in the NY Times. We’re thrilled to watch this company keep growing and touring. Read Gia Kourlas’ thoughts on their piece in “Writhing, Twisting Torsos and an Indoor Snowfall.” 

On Saturday, June 28, the Seattle Public Library became the stage for the latest incarnation of Oliver Herring’s Task piece. A blog has been started to explain the project and record the participants’ responses to the experience: Task Seattle

Here are some videos of the event on YouTube.

Posted by Tania

Both shows turned out great. By circumstance the first was on Father’s Day which we acknowledged and the second happened to be the first day that same-sex couples could be married in California[which are recognized in Washington State], which we also acknowledged. The performers were great in both shows, but in general they were a little more relaxed and into their characters in the second. As a curator I wanted the experience to be a little different for the audience as well, so in celebration of the last 12 Minutes Max of the season the most successful season yet, John and I served delicious cake from the Macrina Bakery during intermission. It seemed to be appreciated by the audience and also the performers who were able to partake. Being a first time curator was a transcendent experience which I recommend to anyone interested in the arts, but on reflection my job was very easy compared to the artists who were in the show as well as the ones who auditioned. Even though John and I had to agonize about who to put in the show and who to leave out to make a compelling show, it was nothing compared to the effort put in by all the performers to create something original and make themselves vulnerable to the dictates and whims of strangers who controlled their 12 Minutes Max fate. Thank you to all the performers, John, and all the people at On the Boards who made this a great and wonderful experience.

-Mark Chandler

I was guest curator for the last show of the season ending in 2008. John Wilson was my co-curator. Not having been a curator before I was apprehensive about doing it, but very thrilled as well since I have been a subscriber to OtB for years and have been going to 12 Minutes Max for years as well. I was so thrilled that I skipped plans to go to San Francisco’s Symphonies Black & White Ball, something I haven’t missed since 1981. John Wilson, my co-curator, is a very experienced teacher at Cornish who specializes in dramaturgy. He is an amazing and wonderful person to work with, providing a great depth of theatrical knowledge and the ability to express it in a constructive, positive, and thoughtful way. Sean Ryan of OtB coordinated everything and has obviously been doing this for a while since the whole experienced worked like clockwork. There were 15 acts that had signed up to audition. Two of them were on DVD (One from Canada, another from New York[artists take note: one of the DVDs could not be read at all-check them before sending]). Most of the acts where great, which made it difficult for John and I to make decisions about who we wanted in the show. Since we are two people with different ideas and tastes it was interesting, but not unexpected that we strongly agreed on some things, had mild disagreements about others, and – most difficult – entirely different opinions on some of the acts. I think we spent at least an extra hour in friendly discussion, each at turn taking each other’s side, in hammering out the differences and what to include to make a good show. Everything worked out in the end and I think we both felt we had put together something that people would find thought provoking and entertaining.

More of my experience to follow after the performances…

-Mark Chandler

Here’s a review of the show on Seattlest:

Transcendent scenery, creative use of technology, and a clean, uncluttered script creates a piece of theatre that is multi-layered, unpretentious, and totally innovative. READ MORE

The Seattle Times reviews small metal objects:

Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park is a haven for joggers, dog walkers and amblers.

You wander amid artworks, taking in magnificent water and mountain views, maybe chatting with a friend. But do you ever wonder about the strangers strolling by? And their conversations? READ MORE

Seattle Weekly posted an on-line review of last night’s performance.

The audience sits in chairs, listening to the performance in headphones while the actors come upon them out of the crowd, telling the story of two invisible men. READ MORE

Welcome to our review blog for small metal objects. Read our patron reviews, click on the Comments button to read the comments of others and post your own thoughts.

Listen. I want you to hear from me, I mean really hear, but how do I do it in an unapologetic-politico-equivocal, diesel-engine, hyperbolic-radio-shout-advertising-saturated world? Common wisdom is if you want to be heard then you better speak the power language, get on board, put up or shut up. If you can’t do it, you’re weak, apathetic, obstinate, and/or impaired. Challenged. I do a lot of double-thinking, double-speaking just to figure out how to communicate authentically, even with myself. The result can often be publicly embarrassing. So you need to know that about me in order to know why I felt such deep gratitude for Back to Back’s small metal objects, the show I witnessed last night. But please take my use of the word show with a grain of salt. It’s a necessary word but I know it comes from a language that privileges commerce, packaging, products, capitalization-of-life, etc. and it invokes those values when uttered. The amazing and creative linguist George Lakoff has been suggesting, to powerful effect, that folks who want to combat the policies of the “global elite” need to be involved in the work of actively reframing the terms of the debate itself – define alternative values and demand “metrics” that are based on these values and these values alone. Sometimes it’s so complicated to communicate with this in mind that I just want to beam feelings from my chest! Well, small metal objects does the thrilling and powerful work of “reframing the debate” simply by claiming public space, blissfully avoiding self-editing (what the fearful might tidy up as “quirky”), and refusing to budge. Last night, “power” was redefined as a deep, instinctive commitment to dignity, and “dignity” claimed independence from legalese. LISTEN I WENT TO THE OLYMPIC SCULPTURE PARK LAST NIGHT AND SAT IN SOME RISERS WITH SOME OTHER PEOPLE AND WE WERE ALL WEARING HEADPHONES AND WATCHING THE PARK AND WATCHING THE JOGGERS AND THE GIANT SCULPTURES AND THE GIANT BODY OF WATER AND THE HILLS AND THE PLANES AND THE BOATS AND THE TRAINS (YEP). IMAGINE RICHARD SCARY FOR GROWNUPS: ALL THE THINGS THAT GO – ALL THE MARKERS OF A COMPLEX, BLUSTERY CIVILIZATION – WERE EVIDENT AND MAKING THEIR LOUD NOISES and within it we heard, intimately, two humans, two friends, both alike in dignity… GO SEE THIS SHOW. Thank you OtB. Thank you B2B. Come back soon! You are the leaders of the free world!

- Paige Weinheimer

*The author of this blog assumes that you are already familiar with “small metal objects”, by reading other posts or summaries, or seeing it yourself.

This piece left me with a rare emotional dichotomy: I’m certain that I understand what happened, how it was constructed, why certain choices were made…and yet I’m simultaneously lost in the uncertainty of meaning that seemed to permeate the piece. DID I GET IT? Do I really understand what I just saw? I suppose it doesn’t matter. It gave me a certain feeling, and that feeling was warm and compassionate.

“small metal objects” would be a great example in an artistic discussion about showing rather than telling. It has very little exposition, and even less spoon-feeding in terms of the themes and message. Things happen, then the show ends. But the WAY they happen, especially in terms of the audience’s point of view, are by far THE REASON TO SEE THE SHOW.

This is the first On the Boards show that I immediately wanted to bring my mom back to. Its warmth and honesty make me feel that the artists are not trying to pull a veil over our eyes, but rather remove one. Is the piece a cry for attention from the different, the excluded, the confused, the “invisible”? Not so clearly. With the wonderful use of music and sound, sparse and elegant and sometimes jarring, we feel connected to Gary, and especially Steve. Ironically, we feel closer to Steve’s soul than we usually do with actors not twenty feet away in a small theatre. Yet Steve is a good 100 feet away.

One quality I appreciate is the use of long pauses before any responses from Steve and Gary. These unique men TAKE THEIR TIME. I assume nothing about their intelligence, but rather I am clearly reminded, over and over, that they value their words and actions more than the majority of society, busily bouncing through our days like pinballs.

One great moment with the use of the public park: a woman, about 50, walked up to the actors during a pivotal moment and asked, “what’s going on here? What is all this for?” The entire audience could hear her through the actors’ microphones, though she was a good 150-200 feet away. The psychologist character turned very quickly and quietly and responded, “it’s a play.” Embarassed, the woman walked away and darted out of the audience’s view, but it was too late. A crowd full of people wearing headphones was laughing hysterically at a poignant moment that could not have been planned and will never happen again.

Thanks, OtB! See you next season!

- Ben Rapson