FLOODESIGN

AB: Are these too big? [Editor's Note: What exactly "these" refers to is lost to history, as none of the participants can recall what exactly they were discussing at that moment. We leave it to you, dear reader, to imagine the possibilities …] ES: They better not be, that's all I have to say. Someone's going to be very sorry if they aren't measured correctly. Some people think it doesn't matter, it's close enough. Don't even get me started. SM: Oh no, start! ES: It's just when you're building something — every step my performers take, they do it hundreds of times, and it's exact. AB: Don't mess with it. ES: You know how you're on stage for what, three days loading in? You don't have time to change everything. It will fall apart. Anyways. I'm getting emotional — I'm just going to let them put them on and hope they are perfect for their sake. Hope they are perfect. CM: I'll call the police. ES: Call the police. There's a special squad for when Elizabeth Streb is disappointed with measurement freaks, and I call that particular department. Anyway. Don't record that. This may not be repeated! No, because our vocabulary is exactly based on the anatomy of the person, the structure we're on, and it's so clumsy, this work. And that's why we do it hundreds of times. To get to the essence of the rhythm. That's what the subject is. If the rhythm is bad, nothing makes any sense. It only makes sense because of the number of repetitions and the invention of the pathways and the force that you need in that particular moment, you know. Like, if for some reason we pull that string and the thing wobbles — off with their heads. Right? Anyway, aren't we getting a little bit off topic? SM: Well, I think that might have been the point. The idea was not to so much have a conversation that was just about the work, but that would go into all these various offshoots that are related. AB: Well, you got that! SM: Yeah. ES: Right. What's an offshoot? CM: You just went on an offshoot! That was an offshoot! ES: Oh, you mean a topical offshoot? SM: Yes! ES: I guess that's my nature. My work is about an experience with no filter, and I think language-based performance has the capacity and the asset of a grammar that's understandable; it's a sentence, usually. It's not just a bunch of scattered words. It has inherent content, based on trying to provide content. And mine is also attempting to get at the nugget of content in action terms and forced terms, and spatial terms. So when you mix those things together, how will they align? I always think this is concrete as an idea, and I can get the physicality and the material and the size of the floor based on the size of the humans, and there's six humans for Streb and six humans for Bogart and Chuck. That's 12, and maybe two will always be outside, because we usually have 10 in the center. Anyway. SM: Interesting. Maybe this seems silly, but what are these 12 people going to wear? ES: That I don't know, because I'm not the costume person. AB: Well, I have a feeling about it, but I don't think James [Schuette, Set and Costume Designer] is going to go for it. James thinks — and it's true — it should be material that actually can be thrown away after every performance. CM: Because it's going to be full of guck. ES: They're making costumes for an upcoming show of mine, and they're more like Mad Max, which I really like, because I'm tired of unitards. But it really doesn't stretch, and the dancers wouldn't be able to do any of the moves. AB: James will make sure they can move. He's really good that way. He just always disagrees with me, which is why I work with him all the time. I had a meeting with him yesterday, and every idea I told him he goes, "No, no." I have to put my ego to the side, because — ES: Do you really get your feelings hurt? AB: A little bit. But the thing is, over the 20 years I've worked with him or more, he comes up with a better idea. I mean, I sort of upload everything. He looks at me disapprovingly and then he comes up with something better. When we did "bobrauschenbergamerica," which is a play that Chuck wrote, what did I say? — ES: Such a great show. AB: James was doing sets and costumes. I said, "You know, I think it should just be industrial, like whatever theater we're in, the walls, whatever: gray." He comes in with a model the next time we meet and it's an American flag. A big-ass American flag. And I said, "Yeah, that's great." ES: Oh my gosh. I think that's spectacular — I mean, I guess I don't collaborate with anyone but my dancers, really, and my set designers. I mean, my tech guys. SM: Do they tell you no? ES: Sometimes. But I argue with them. 29 | PEAKPERFS.ORG

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