Jules: Adventures Of A Zombie Messiah
Once, years ago, I gave an audience member superpowers. Well, I accidentally gave an audience member superpowers. Some background. I was in a show called The Rocking Dead, created and produced by the company Playing With Reality. It was a raucous party on a boat, except the boat was besieged by zombies. New York City had been […]
The Paradox of Perfectionism
In The Deep Dive, we work to develop an awareness and a kind of deep listening on par with a wizard savant— a heightening of our senses to each word, each gesture, each breath expressed consciously and subconsciously by the spect. It often feels that, without perfecting this skill, we fall short of our goal […]
Why the Deep Dive: The Search for Wholeness
The other evening I watched Lost in Translation. It was the second time I had watched it. I knew that I had seen it previously because I felt that strange sense of deja vu you get when you’ve half-watched a movie once before in your childhood. When I was a kid, I was no doubt […]
What’s In A Name?
During my time in New York, whenever I’d meet with artistic partners of mine, there was this unsolvable question that would crop up. We’d be out for drinks, the conversation would drift from personal updates to Walking Dead updates and then eventually roll into talking shop. These discussions usually started with one of us trying […]
What is Interactive, Really?
The speed of human technological innovation is to me, unfathomable. It is a world unto itself. This state of affairs is thanks to, in no small part, the human imagination; our capacity to connect and learn from one another and conceive some ultimate supercomputer which, in theory, will surpass all human ability. Advancements in the […]
Authenticity and Spirit of the Torch
The walk to fearless is a walk towards greater authenticity. How do I stand in front of the crowd, or even one person, and be me? Imperfect, but authentic: letting it all in, letting it all out. Just be yourself… right? It’s a misconception that people who feel anxiety while performing aren’t meant to be […]
Introduction to interactive performance
Bear in mind that the thoughts on this page are my perspectives on interactive performance. There are other definitions and perspectives out there that are completely different and equally valid. -Jeff What is interactive performance? Interactive performance is any performed experience in which audience members become co-creators of a performed experience, through the facilitation of […]
Why the Work?
Have you ever been out with a friend–maybe you’re in a coffee shop, or on the street, or on a train– you fabricate a bit of fiction, your friend plays along, and for a few minutes you’re playing together inside an invented world? You know how that feels? It’s fun. It’s a bit magical. And […]
Treating crowds as people
Below is a link to an interesting article in The Economist about about modeling crowd dynamics on the behavior of molecules (a common model) and on the behavior of people (the innovation addressed in the article). Turns out there is an advantage to the use of both models. Wisdom About Crowds – http://www.economist.com/node/18584096 The article was sent […]