Re: New to RAT Communique`

[jonoh1@juno.com]

 I'm interested 
>in 'process,' in the making - of collage-type work - 

A lot of my original work has been compilations or collage-type. Here's
one example:

Several years ago I was commissioned to go to the midwest and build a
show around the writings of a midwestern poet named Rachel Adams. 
Luckily the writing was exemplary.

Mrs. Adams was in her late sixties at the time and we discussed where she
currently was in her life. We talked about the strides women had made
over the years and how that had affected her poetry. I came up with the
concept of "the ascension of the female spirit" for a work that was
eventually called "WiseWoman - a musical cabaret".

I divided the show into several themed categories: childhood, youth,
young adulthood, marriage/motherhood (this dealt with <her> after all),
independence, age, death and, finally, ascension. Each category was given
it's own life and each of the five female members of the ensemble
represented some archetype. A child, a young woman, a wife/mother, a
crone and the essence of female spirituality itself. We were careful not
to divide the categories in any obvious way but, rather, to give them
fluidity. One feeding into the next almost without notice.

The playing area was a huge X on the floor made out of starched white
sheets, surrounded by white runner lights. There was a platform with a
round pedestal and five white stools in the middle of the X.  On the
North point of the white X (or cross, if you will) was a child's white
chair, opposite, was a white utility stool (marriage/motherhood), to the
East was a Hugh white, old wooden porch swing (memory) and opposite that
was a large white wicker rocking chair (age.)

The only color on the set was the yellow of lemons (reference to the
opening poem - "Remembrance of  Lemons".

In building text, I had to pay very special attention to rhythm. All of
the poetry was good, so I didn't have to concern myself so much with any
kind of editor's eye - though some were chosen over others - and if there
was a question, it always boiled down to rhythm.  And flow. I very much
wanted the piece to be dreamlike and liquid, like a memory you almost
have but not quite. Something that slips easily away but remains forever
if you don't try to hold on to it too roughly.

The show built itself.

When building a "collage" piece, it serves the compiler best to know as
<exactly> as possible what s/he wants to say. And precisely what the
piece is about. Without that, I think, one ends up with a meandering,
though well-intentioned, work.

Jonathan
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