Wall to Wall Theatre Festival

As part of the Upstart Festival Basement Arts put together the Wall to Wall Theatre Festival which took place in the Walgreen Drama Center March 29 and 30. The concept for the Wall to Wall Theatre Festival was to create a museum of theater, running 9 unrelated 30 minute shows on a continuous loop for 3 hours and allowing the audience to pick an chose which shows they would attend and in what order.

Of the 9 pieces Speak to Me (the piece I was in) was one of the more avant garde works relying completely on improvisation within the a simple structure of inner and outer exploration leading to communication hindered by the lack of a common medium. My medium consisted of the text from a German art song by Strauss and an excerpt from a Bach Cantata as well as physical movement.

Initially, I signed up for the project because I knew it was a low time commitment and I liked the concept of the festival. I did not know which piece I would be a part of and was initially concerned by the improvisatory nature of Speak to Me. I had never improvised on such a large scale and never while having to interact and work with other performers, especially ones who were simultaneously improvising.

Regardless of all my concerns at the beginning of the process I could not be more please that I took part. By forcing myself to improvise using existing text and pieces of music I discovered what people mean by saying one must live in the music. As I performed I forgot the little voice in my head that is perpetually concerned with using proper technique and ignored the part of my brain that never enjoys the moment but is looking forward to the next note. As I lived in the music and in the moment I lost all track of time, making 30 minutes of improvisation fly past.

For the audience, the Wall to Wall Theatre Festival was a chance to get tastes of different types of performance art without overwhelming themselves. For me, it was a chance to explore the music within songs that I have sung hundreds of times and rediscover the music beyond the notes written on the page.