FLOODESIGN

One gray, rainy morning in April, I sat down with director Anne Bogart, playwright Charles Mee and choreographer Elizabeth Streb in the lobby of STREB LAB for ACTION MECHANICS (SLAM) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Over coffee, we discussed the first collaboration among three of the most interesting, boundary-pushing artists working in New York theater. Bogart is directing a production that will marry Mee's plays with the separate dance and action choreography that Streb is known for, to create a cacophony of movement and emotion centering around the idea of love — in all its exciting, complicated messiness. Streb showed me the sketches she was using to map out the stage positions of the dancers in relation to the actors, along with ideas for stage rigs that would dump "guck" — a collection of sticky, messy substances — onto the performers. The conversation was both an interview about the work and a meeting in which Streb, Bogart and Mee could discuss details that were still very much in flux — at one point, Bogart even had her own phone sidebar as the main conversation was still proceeding. In the background, dancers from SLAM could be heard rehearsing on equipment that combines the laws of physics with human daring and imagination. This conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. ELIZABETH STREB: Well, they're a breed apart in terms of action heroes. They have an appetite for this close encounter, and they understand timing in a physical way. STREB EXTREME ACTION. "AIR." PHOTO: RALPH ALSWANG 22 | PEAKPERFS.ORG ANNE BOGART, CHARLES MEE AND ELIZABETH STREB IN CONVERSATION WITH SORAYA NADIA McDONALD

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