More Faerie Oracle
Jun. 8th, 2004 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kukla_tkoIt seems that my grand vision is too large for Crystal Spiral.
It turns out that there was a request for an encore performance of a bit I did at Lothlorien years ago...
... and there's no way I can re-create it here.
It's probable that I couldn't even recreate it at Lothlorien.
Here's what I did.
I had brought the troupe to Lothlorien on a performance-barter. We were scheduled for a certain number of performances. I had plenty of faeries there, but four of them had to take off because they were a family and one of the kids took ill.
The rest of the faeries started to panic because we couldn't do all of our acts without them. I said, let's do "future Fairies."
When they started to panic even worse because they had no idea what I meant... I just smiled, and told them that we were going to do some... creative improv.
The actors I had available were:
An accomplished guitarist, who brought his axe.
An accomplished keyboard player and sound synthesizer, who didn't bring his own equipment.
An actor with self-esteem issues who was nonetheless a major stage presence... and looked like Hot Goth Jesus.
A "fairy Godmother" and her 3 year old.
A hot busty chick who channels "silly" with no effort at all. (Must be her ADHD...)
And since I suffer from a near-fatal overpacking complex, LOTS of costumes to go around.
The scene: (Lightning Shrine.)At the top of the slope, there is a smallish solar (and sometimes generator) powered stage. Then there is a large circular cleared space that goes down the slope, with a maypole in the middle. Audience typically sits in the shade at the edges where there are some wooden benches.
The three guys I put on the stage. Had the guitarist and the keyboard player fiddle around and "Just make sounds. If it turns into music, great. If not, just make interesting noises together." Had Hot Goth Jesus stand on stage and do pseudo-martial-art katas. Dressed Goth Jesus in a black ritual robe with silver trim, and plenty of black eyeliner. Meet the mad wizard.
Dressed the Guitarist in a black unitard, black "butterfly" wings with skulls on them, and gigantic "loki" horns. Makeup that would have made Gene Simmons proud, with darkened eyesockets and silver powder over the face.
Took the three girls and the child, and dressed us in scraps of flowy chiffon, with coordinated butterfly wings and head wreaths. Picked colors for each: pink, teal, green, blue.
Everyone got a healthy dusting of my iridescent powders over their eyesockets, and we called it good.
So the boys made conjuring gestures and crazy electronic music on the stage...
while the girls pinwheeled about, and gyred and gymboled in the wabe. The faeries dusted the audience with glitter, giggled and whispered nonsensical "Secrets", encouraged the audience members to get up and dance with us, "flew" the little one around in our arms, and generally just filled the glen with glee. When I got tired of that, I went and took the mike.
Now, what I was doing was nothing more than regurgitating the folklore of Lothlorien, the same "space elves" stuff that they had been sending out in their pamphlets for YEARS. I simply spoke into the microphone, "Morrisoning." (A la Jim Morrison of the Doors, when he would wax poetic and incoherent into the mike in the middle of songs.)
Just said any old thing that popped into my head. Spoke of a bright, startrekkie future of many beings living in harmony together and nurturing our planet, bla bla blah. Then we sang some of my favorite songs (Didn't act them out, just sang them competently) and finished up.
But apparently this is what the audience (and some of my actors) saw:
On the stage, a trio of guys that look like a random band are making noises and cool performance art. Just when they think that Hot Goth Jesus is the lead singer and about to start singing...
the Faeries enter the glen. Bubbling with laughter, they dance and play, and actually invite people of all ages to dance and play with them.
They are sparkly and strange and new, with gigantic "anime" eyes and bright smiles. The littlest one almost flies as they toss her into the air.
Then the lead faerie speaks into the microphone.
"We are the Future Faeries, and we come from the future with a vision for you."
She speaks softly, but her words are clear. She tells us not to lose hope, that we can make it if we try hard enough, and that if we are good spaceship elves, we will go to other planets, and befriend other races of intelligent beings, and find the answers to our oldest and worst problems. She describes the universe as a place filled with wonders, but lets us know that our world is filled with wonders, too. Then, her fairies gather around her, and they sing in these soft, lilting voices. Their songs are filled with longing and tragedy, but end in heartbreaking beauty.
The old hippies in the crowd were smiling through glistening tears.
And I became legendary, first for my writing skills, and when I laughed that off and told everyone that I didn't write any such speech, I became legendary as a prophet, and seer, and a medium or mystic.
And I could work hard to explain what I was doing and why, and patiently explain the concepts of improvisational theater... except that I have a friend who actually studied Improv, (you know like, In college?) and he claims that this is certainly NOT what I am doing. He has NO explanation WHATSOEVER for what I do.
And, admittedly, I do it all the time.
However, I am unlikely to be able to assemble this particular cast of characters again. Partly due to the fact that my guitarist divorced the Godmother, got custody of their daughter, and now lives in Colorado. The Godmother has overwhelming health problems and I no longer have contact with her, the Hot Goth Jesus and the Busty Girl got together, broke up, and neither one performs with me very often any more.
The Keyboard player married my mother. And is the one who leaked this story to the committee running Crystal Spiral.
I am unlikely to have the rest of the circumstances go the way I want them to.
I don't think I can reproduce this performance on demand. I know I can't do so at a random hotel.
And despite the fact that I just spent a huge chunk of time typing this entry, I don't really like to talk about it and analyze it in front of a crowd.
So I have NO IDEA what I am going to do for Crystal Spiral.
I am willing to take suggestions...
It turns out that there was a request for an encore performance of a bit I did at Lothlorien years ago...
... and there's no way I can re-create it here.
It's probable that I couldn't even recreate it at Lothlorien.
Here's what I did.
I had brought the troupe to Lothlorien on a performance-barter. We were scheduled for a certain number of performances. I had plenty of faeries there, but four of them had to take off because they were a family and one of the kids took ill.
The rest of the faeries started to panic because we couldn't do all of our acts without them. I said, let's do "future Fairies."
When they started to panic even worse because they had no idea what I meant... I just smiled, and told them that we were going to do some... creative improv.
The actors I had available were:
An accomplished guitarist, who brought his axe.
An accomplished keyboard player and sound synthesizer, who didn't bring his own equipment.
An actor with self-esteem issues who was nonetheless a major stage presence... and looked like Hot Goth Jesus.
A "fairy Godmother" and her 3 year old.
A hot busty chick who channels "silly" with no effort at all. (Must be her ADHD...)
And since I suffer from a near-fatal overpacking complex, LOTS of costumes to go around.
The scene: (Lightning Shrine.)At the top of the slope, there is a smallish solar (and sometimes generator) powered stage. Then there is a large circular cleared space that goes down the slope, with a maypole in the middle. Audience typically sits in the shade at the edges where there are some wooden benches.
The three guys I put on the stage. Had the guitarist and the keyboard player fiddle around and "Just make sounds. If it turns into music, great. If not, just make interesting noises together." Had Hot Goth Jesus stand on stage and do pseudo-martial-art katas. Dressed Goth Jesus in a black ritual robe with silver trim, and plenty of black eyeliner. Meet the mad wizard.
Dressed the Guitarist in a black unitard, black "butterfly" wings with skulls on them, and gigantic "loki" horns. Makeup that would have made Gene Simmons proud, with darkened eyesockets and silver powder over the face.
Took the three girls and the child, and dressed us in scraps of flowy chiffon, with coordinated butterfly wings and head wreaths. Picked colors for each: pink, teal, green, blue.
Everyone got a healthy dusting of my iridescent powders over their eyesockets, and we called it good.
So the boys made conjuring gestures and crazy electronic music on the stage...
while the girls pinwheeled about, and gyred and gymboled in the wabe. The faeries dusted the audience with glitter, giggled and whispered nonsensical "Secrets", encouraged the audience members to get up and dance with us, "flew" the little one around in our arms, and generally just filled the glen with glee. When I got tired of that, I went and took the mike.
Now, what I was doing was nothing more than regurgitating the folklore of Lothlorien, the same "space elves" stuff that they had been sending out in their pamphlets for YEARS. I simply spoke into the microphone, "Morrisoning." (A la Jim Morrison of the Doors, when he would wax poetic and incoherent into the mike in the middle of songs.)
Just said any old thing that popped into my head. Spoke of a bright, startrekkie future of many beings living in harmony together and nurturing our planet, bla bla blah. Then we sang some of my favorite songs (Didn't act them out, just sang them competently) and finished up.
But apparently this is what the audience (and some of my actors) saw:
On the stage, a trio of guys that look like a random band are making noises and cool performance art. Just when they think that Hot Goth Jesus is the lead singer and about to start singing...
the Faeries enter the glen. Bubbling with laughter, they dance and play, and actually invite people of all ages to dance and play with them.
They are sparkly and strange and new, with gigantic "anime" eyes and bright smiles. The littlest one almost flies as they toss her into the air.
Then the lead faerie speaks into the microphone.
"We are the Future Faeries, and we come from the future with a vision for you."
She speaks softly, but her words are clear. She tells us not to lose hope, that we can make it if we try hard enough, and that if we are good spaceship elves, we will go to other planets, and befriend other races of intelligent beings, and find the answers to our oldest and worst problems. She describes the universe as a place filled with wonders, but lets us know that our world is filled with wonders, too. Then, her fairies gather around her, and they sing in these soft, lilting voices. Their songs are filled with longing and tragedy, but end in heartbreaking beauty.
The old hippies in the crowd were smiling through glistening tears.
And I became legendary, first for my writing skills, and when I laughed that off and told everyone that I didn't write any such speech, I became legendary as a prophet, and seer, and a medium or mystic.
And I could work hard to explain what I was doing and why, and patiently explain the concepts of improvisational theater... except that I have a friend who actually studied Improv, (you know like, In college?) and he claims that this is certainly NOT what I am doing. He has NO explanation WHATSOEVER for what I do.
And, admittedly, I do it all the time.
However, I am unlikely to be able to assemble this particular cast of characters again. Partly due to the fact that my guitarist divorced the Godmother, got custody of their daughter, and now lives in Colorado. The Godmother has overwhelming health problems and I no longer have contact with her, the Hot Goth Jesus and the Busty Girl got together, broke up, and neither one performs with me very often any more.
The Keyboard player married my mother. And is the one who leaked this story to the committee running Crystal Spiral.
I am unlikely to have the rest of the circumstances go the way I want them to.
I don't think I can reproduce this performance on demand. I know I can't do so at a random hotel.
And despite the fact that I just spent a huge chunk of time typing this entry, I don't really like to talk about it and analyze it in front of a crowd.
So I have NO IDEA what I am going to do for Crystal Spiral.
I am willing to take suggestions...
