Monday
June 25 “Yippety-Skippety (on a cone with sprinkles)”
documentation written by Lori Moore
What a funfilled day. We started out by choosing one card, which said: “In 2024, I will have a lovely 6 or 7 year old daughter, and live in a home filled with adorable puppies.” So, by means of Nicole, we got the idea to call a little 6-year-old girl, and see what kinds of ideas she might have. We asked her a few questions about colors, toys, food (she gave us the ice cream idea!). We got called back by a 3-year-old (she wanted to help, too). We also brought up some of our own childhood memories from when we were 6 years old. Selena made a joke about skipping, and we took it seriously. Elizabeth said that she didn’t know how to skip, and Lori said that she could teach her. (That’s how this performance began). We all went outside on the grass after buying some ice cream to have a “skipping lesson.” We ended up learning to skip, yipping like puppies, and eating our ice cream, all at the same time! It was fun. Very childlike. Puddin’ dropped some of her ice cream on the road, and she got a little upset, because she really wanted that piece—whoops! Not much of an audience, this one was for us!
*Just as a side note, Elizabeth can now skip like a pro!
Tuesday June 26 “Life’s
Circle”
documentation written by Erin Garceau (14)
Today we explored the circle of life. We started this idea by first
pulling a card from the pile of many. Today’s card said, “In
2024 I will be celebrating my daughter’s greatest creation: the
birth of my grandchild.” We then called up Alex’s mom Carol,
and interviewed her and Peter Benkendorf. We asked them questions about
being grandparents, and just the general idea of grandchildren. After
these interviews we all sat down and thought about what the person
had said. Nicole then wrote four numbered bullets on the blackboard,
and went around asking individuals what really popped out at them from
the interviews. The bullets were as follows:
1) Circle of Life
2) holding grandchildren for the first time
3) lineage
4) joy
After these, Nicole went over the way her choreographer (Peter Carpenter) came up with dance moves: all improvisation, and his basic breakdown of the all of the dancers made up the moves. We all performed something that reminded us of the circle of life. Nicole watched and told us what she liked, to repeat a move, and blend them all together. We then practiced the “finished” product. After we felt comfortable we moved out to a small grassy area with exactly 5 pine trees, all staggered perfectly. We then performed the dance twice. Our audience, since we had no set one, was the random person or persons passing or driving by. One woman even sat in her car watching us for a bit. I think overall the performance today was one of the best we’ve had so far.
Wednesday June 27 Performance #1 “Hole in the Bottom
of the Sea”
(Today Brood 13 was joined by Adam’s group, so
we made two performances.)
documentation text written by Lisa Walsh (16)
The idea for props used in the performance, obsidian and a pineapple, came from the ideal trip to Hawaii spoken of in the card. Pineapples are often associated with Hawaii. Obsidian comes from volcanoes, which are also associated with Hawaii. To begin forming the actions themselves, each group member told a memory that they had of a parent or grandparent. We then changed that story to a shorter summary. We then memorized each of each other’s stories and retold them to each other as if they had happened to us. After that, we chose actions to portray one of the stories, not necessarily ours, and performed them in front of each other. We combined each of our actions together and retold the stories. For the final performance, we included the following stories:
I like to go shopping with my mother.
My mother and I fixed up our summer cottage.
My grandfather and I laughed as a bear attacked our neighbor’s
campsite.
My dad bought me tickets to go see Tool.
My grandfather bounced me on his knee while he smoked and sang to me.
My grandfather told me that whenever I bit my nails, it took 10 years
off my life.
We began the performance with me standing alone in the center, chewing on my nails. I sunk to my knees and eventually fell into the fetal position on the ground as if I were dead. Emily then entered and stood behind me, balancing on one foot with the other crossed over as she pretended to cradle/bounce a child while smoking. Erin entered and circled around us, pushing an imaginary shopping cart as she reached for the items she was shopping for. Selena then came in and knelt by my head with her back to the audience. She whispered the stories to me—the audience did not really know what she was doing. Jack entered and stood by Emily and recited the stories, making an effort to remember them all. When he finished, I retold the stories in my own words.
Erin, who had been constantly moving and shopping around us, signaled to Jack and began to move offstage with Jack following her. Emily followed Jack offstage, holding the pineapple he had brought onstage with him. Selena sank backwards to exit after leaving a piece of obsidian lying by me. The performance ended with me still lying in the center of the stage. The audience reacted positively. Their ideas of the performance changed somewhat, however, when we told them that Selena had told the stories also. The performance took place outside the entrance to McHenry Community College on the sidewalk. It was very hot and humid, and part of the sidewalk was wet because it had just rained. There was a bench for the audience to sit on.
Wednesday June 27 Performance #2 “Memories”documentation written by Elizabeth Skalecki (15)
Card: “In 2024 I am surrounded by my children and grandchildren enjoying a grand vacation in Hawaii.”
We generated performance ideas by having each group member tell a story about something they did with their grandparent(s). We brainstormed ideas about materials that remind us of Hawaii and chose to work with pineapple and obsidian. Nicole bought pineapples and Selena brought in obsidian. We wanted to incorporate a pineapple and 3 pieces of obsidian in each scene of the performance. Their meaning changed from scene to scene. The audience enjoyed it and we put a lot of energy into it. It was raining, so we performed it by the “B” entrance to McHenry Community College, under the shelter.
Thursday June 28 Performance: “Thanks for the Patches”
(Today Brood 13 was “Group of the Week”—so
we performed for the whole Blue Sky Program!)
documentation written by Selena Lester (14)
Card #1: “In 2024 the world will have Luscious Trees”
Card #2: “People will ride bikes not drive cars”
For today’s performance we did Lori’s “Circle of Life” dance together with a move we stole from Jack. We told stories and rode a bike. To generate ideas for the performance, Nicole asked Alex, Erin, and Elizabeth to think of a happy memory from when they were riding bikes. We also wanted to incorporate Lori’s “Circle of Life” dance as well as Jack’s gesture from the previous day in order to thank him for the patches he made for us.
At this point we knew that Alex would perform the Jack dance. Lori, Erin, and Nicole would perform the Lori dance, Elizabeth would ride the bike around, and Selena would tell the three bike stories. Now we needed a location. Alex led us to an area by the pond with small pine trees. To incorporate the idea of luscious trees, Alex and Selena stood by trees when they were performing.
The performance started with Lori thanking the rest of Blue Sky for attending. Then Elizabeth rode around the patio. After circling once, Nicole, Lori, and Erin performed the Lori/Jack dance with Lori instructing it. After they did the dance three times, Selena Started telling the three stories and when she was done she joined the dancers and did the dance with them. Next, Alex stopped doing the Jack dance and emerged from his tree and told the three stories again. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was still riding the bike. After Alex was through, he joined the dancers and did the dance once. Then Elizabeth stopped riding and did the dance once on the concrete while the rest of the dancers were on the grass. Elizabeth then got up, rode the bike off, and ended the performance.
We walked back inside and had the audience ask us questions and comment on the performance. Some comments were that they thought we were doing yoga and that the dance symbolized a tree. One person thought it was like a conspiracy, and many were confused. We were also asked about the thought process we went through and if we were nervous, and Nicole was the only one who was nervous.
