FLOODESIGN

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD: What is this that you have laid out before you? ELIZABETH STREB: These are some of my drawings that I did — for understanding my STREB part of this amazing project with Anne Bogart and Chuck Mee. And this is what my dancers are going to be doing in the floor area. Of course, this will all be amended when the actors start coming in, and etc., etc. ANNE BOGART: What stage of development is this? ES: Well, the set is designed, and it's being built right now, as we speak, up at Hudson Scenic. I have choreographed my structure, physically. And that's going to be expanded when the language comes in, and the actors come in. AB: You have to understand that she's created a "Guck Machine." SM: A Guck Machine? AB: It's a big machine, so that guck falls constantly from way above, onto the performers. Buckets will drop things onto the ground. And I love the part about the buckets coming down and getting refilled. I love that so much. ES: I've had to fight for that a little. CHARLES MEE: OK, but I have to tell my story. ES: Please, please. CM: I want to tell you where this came from, which is Elizabeth and I met at a dinner party and had a really nice conversation. We thought, "Oh, we should have lunch sometime." Just for the fun of it. So at lunch we were just talking and having a nice time, and then I said, "Oh, Elizabeth, you know what would be really great is all your acrobat dancers flying through the air. It would be amazingly beautiful and thrilling and scary and awful. And then there would be a few actors standing around, talking about love." She said, "Oh, I'd love to do that. But you know, I don't work with actors. I only work with my dancers, so we'd need a director." I said, "Oh, how about Anne Bogart?" She said, "Oh, I've always wanted to work with Anne Bogart." AB: Who hasn't, right? CM: So I took my cell phone out of my pocket and called Anne and told her I was having lunch with Elizabeth and about the conversation we had just had and that Elizabeth had said she's always wanted to work with Anne, and Anne said, "Oh, I'd love to do that." So that's how easy it was to put together. AB: And here we are. CM: Here we are. But when I look at this, and there's guck falling and all kinds of stuff that's really complicated and stuff that's beautiful and horrible, I think, "Oh, love. Yeah, love." [laughter] There's bad and awful and wonderful and horrible and — ES: And all of the above. I'm not a literalist, but you know, Chuck's a playwright and Anne is a director, so all of us together is this beautiful idea of square pegs in round holes and square holes with round pegs. It's a gorgeously combative set of aesthetics, I think. AB: And the trick is to arrange all of it in such a way that it creates this experience for an audience. In other words, you have the dancers flying through the guck, doing all kinds of amazing things. You have the actors, who are talking to each other, talking to CHARLES MEE: I want to tell you where this came from, which is Elizabeth and I met at a dinner party and had a really nice conversation. We thought, "Oh, we should have lunch sometime." Just for the fun of it. So at lunch we were just talking and having a nice time, and then I said, "Oh, Elizabeth, you know what would be really great is all your acrobat dancers flying through the air. It would be amazingly beautiful and thrilling and scary and awful. And then there would be a few actors standing around, talking about love." She said, "Oh, I'd love to do that. But you know, I don't work with actors. I only work with my dancers, so we'd need a director." I said, "Oh, how about Anne Bogart?" She said, "Oh, I've always wanted to work with Anne Bogart." ANNE BOGART: And here we are. ANNE BOGART: Who hasn't, right? CHARLES MEE: So I took my cell phone out of my pocket and called Anne and told her I was having lunch with Elizabeth and about the conversation we had just had and that Elizabeth had said she's always wanted to work with Anne, and Anne said, "Oh, I'd love to do that." So that's how easy it was to put together. 23 | PEAKPERFS.ORG

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