On the train heading to Newtown for our departmental research conference, looking over the talk I’m giving tomorrow morning. The talk is an attempt to describe the ongoing process of bringing together my research (primarily written, formal, theory-led) with my performance practice (improvised, disposable, pragmatic, comic). More than anything, I want to talk about my growing engagement (a polite way of saying obsession) with interactive, co-operative and collaborative performance.
Accordingly, my struggle over what to say is coupled – painfully – with the question of how to say it. I’m on a panel with two colleagues: it’s not the time or space for a 20 minute work-in-progress performance (even if I had 20 minutes to show, which I really don’t).
My solution – and I’ll soon find out if it works – is to use my presentation to play a game with the audience, a gamble when the game is brand new (to me and everyone else) and the game doesn’t have a “winning” state which might provide satisfying closure. Instead, I’m presuming (gambling/hoping) that the best way to talk about process is to actually engage in it – to play a performance game, rather than describing the rules or showing what you could have already won.
So. Wish me luck.
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