Out of an Abundance of Caution with Lauren Miller and Jess Almasy
OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION is a live stream response to performance in shared spaces shutting down in March 2020
We started broadcasting March 22, 2020
OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION is an avant-garde microfestival LIVE + online of quick + dirty-fascinating work responding to and from the places and people with whom we select to shelter, on a wildly inclusive + non hierarchical platform
Co-Curated by: Jessica Almasy, Theresa Buchheister, Lauren Miller
Technical Coordinator: Matt JJ Miller and Mike Lacey and MB
Image by: Audrey Taylor Lane
Since then, we have featured work by:
Maya Sharpe, Wanda Noonan, Peter Funk, The Dumb American, Lady Goodybags, Braulio Cruz, an_outskirt, Hannah Kallenbach, shahzad, Wamoo, Wendy Carlos Williams, Jose Maria Rivera Jr., Darian Dachaun, Ellpetha + Camilo, Kristin Worrall, Justin Yorio, Deepali Gupta, Andrew Butler, Abigail Entsminger, Sarah Newdek, Lorelei Ramirez, Anjili, Stacey Sargeant, Debbie Tjong, Hannah Mitchell, Scott Adkins, Eliza Bent, Kate Mohanty, Itchie Richie, AuCoLai, Allison Theresa Fowler, Fareeha Khan, Simple Town, Cristina Pitter, Peter Mills Weiss, Jaime Wright, Object Collection, Katrina Yaukey, Jenn Pehr + Jon Ross, Daaimah Mubhashshir, Julia Bray, Richard Aufrichtig, Eugene Ma + Cherry Lou Sy, Master Lee, Nadia Pinder, VOLK, Mallory Avidon, Rebecca Hart, Pollens, Tei Blow, Charles Quittner, Car World, Gio Naraandorp, Sean Santiago, Yackez, The Million Underscores, Joey Kipp, Taylor Plas, Jerry Lieblich, Julia Mounsey, lumberob, The Nervous, Shakera Bibi, Nihaarika Negi, Eric Holm, Sanaz Ghajar.
Sound Lab with Harrison David Rivers and River Donaghy
Sound Lab is a a thought-experiment-turned-residency.
In June 2019, Harrison and I met at a diner in Hell’s Kitchen to chat and drink coffee. We had both just had conversations swirling around the ideas and practices of creating fiction podcasts. We decided to do a residency as part fo Brick 2020 where we work with playwrights to craft fiction podcasts.
Applications were due at the end of February 2020. We reviewed and were excited about all the applicants. But then… a worldwide pandemic.
It took some time to move through the initial waves of depression, worry, sadness, anxiety. The applicants were patient.
Our first little step forward was asking River Donaghy to join us on the facilitator side of things.
Then, we invited our dear little group of writers and sent personal emails to those with whom we would not be able to work this year.
Sound Lab 2020: Mariam Bazeed, Allyson Dwyer, Jason Gates & Celine Snippe, Carl Holder
Stay tuned for pilot episodes, future live events, and more!
The Room with Averyn Mackey
Averyn Mackey introduced me to the great film, The Room, in 2014 and proposed that we do a fully staged performance of the exact text. She would be Lisa, I would be Johnny and the rest would come together.
And come together it did, with the mercurial acting talents of Dale Lee Buchheister, Kate Hurley, Michelle Nikoomanesh, Blake E. Bolan, Brian Lady, Scott Ries, Justin Anselmi, Spencer Campbell, E James Ford.
Cameron Kelly handled the photo booth, with brick wall, footballs, spoons and wigs.
We provided spoons and footballs for the audience to heave at us whenever an actor held up a spoon or football.
There was a sexy red dress, lots of blood, and full-length love-making scenes.
And always some comedy before and after, just to balance out the DRAMA.
The Lost Horizons Night Market with Mark Krawczuk
In 2010 I met Mark Krawczuk while working on The Sweet Cheat. He invited me to attend The Lost Horizons Night Market: an event where a bunch of box trucks and proprietors congregate in a secret location. All the trucks feature different worlds on the inside, including petting zoos, boxing rings, hot tubs, and, Mark’s classic – a noodle dinner with friends.
The first truck that I came upon (I was on time, because I was still very much in “theater head” at that point) was a funeral truck. I guessed the funeral director’s number, and got invited into the truck to lay in a coffin. I was asked a slew of questions, then several minutes later, a bunch of strangers came into the truck to eulogize me. I cannot recall if it was at this particular night market, but Monica Wille and I spent a fun five minutes in one of the rooms of the seedy motel truck.
After one visit, of course I wanted to do a truck!
Our weirdo Title:Point crew came together to create a space truck, which became a sorta haunted space ritual truck after E James Ford and I made a trip to DEALS for supplies and came back with our version of communion.
It was even in the NYT! Hahahaha.
We did this truck many times, and it got wilder and wilder. A labyrinth of sheets, bubble wrap, fog, mannequin parts, fencing masks, LEDs, goooooooo, a light cannon, whips and chains, saws and blood and Tyvek-suited actors performing cycles of rituals for hours. I was always a space priest with either E James Ford or Catrin Lloyd Bollard, giving out after dinner mints and energy drink in a goblet. We would base the other rituals on whomever was down to play with us.
We also did this in CSAA as the entrance to a Halloween Party at Silent Barn and at CATCH at The Knockdown Center, in the weird little hut in the back. Those were much longer events… probably 6 or more hours. And boy did we make a mess!
The only time I did a different truck was a super fun collaboration with Mark and Dale Buchheister – we made the truck a wood-paneled basement with a central table made for teaching people how to make pierogis. It was so nice on that cold night to send people away with steaming hot snacks!
