The Sum of Their Methods
Describing how his company, the Rude Mechs, came to develop a sequence in their latest show, The Method Gun, where two men prance across the stage completely naked, their penises held toward the sky by batches of balloons, writer Kirk Lynn recalled a gauntlet thrown at the Orchard Project in 2007: "Our friends from Radiohole were there, and they were out running around filming each other naked in the woods at night, and we wanted to rise to the challenge."* It's not just the idyllic image of a workshop artopia where late night nakedtime leads to new material that charms me. It's how aptly this scenario of group-on-group escalating dares epitomizes ideas of artistic resourcefulness in the show that I love. If The Method Gun grapples with big questions: How does a company move forward when a guru abandons them? How does a group decide when there's no lone decider? (Who pulls the trigger?) Rising to challenges from a like-minded ensemble proves one fruitful response. Seeing where the passions, whims, unfulfilled expectations of individuals within your own group take you, another. Inviting your public to help reconstruct the legacy of your enigmatic mentor via the Internet, another! Attempting to assemble a play out of the negative space of "A Streetcar Named Desire” after removing its four main characters, yet another. Bereft of a single tried-and-true way, the company discovers a multitude of new ways. Once you burn your idols and quit searching for an authoritative method, your collective net for catching inspiration exponentially widens, and together you move toward unknown territory. -- Katie
The Method Gun plays through March 11 at Dance Theater Workshop in Chelsea.
Members of the Rude Mechs developing 'The Method Gun' at the Orchard Project in Hunter, New York, 2007
*Robert Faires, The Austin Chronicle (March 28, 2008).