Team Roster and Basic Plays for 'continuous play'

While I'm still trying to nail down how to interface audience-with-performance-piece, I decided that it might be fun to share the playbook with them. GroundCrew Joe and I talked about the Bang on a Can All-Stars - how making the All-Star parallel allowed them to invite certain audiences into the level of complexity in some of the contemporary music they were playing. So, in that spirit, I'm working on how to bring the audience to a basic level of understanding and encouraging a deeper level of engagement - to the point of participation. I'm still working up more Standard and Advanced Plays. But here's my Roster and Basic Playbook.

Play Ground - Play Time - Play Offs - Play Mate - Play er - Play Date - Play Book - Play Hard – Play Fair - Play House - Play Boy - Play Girl - Play Toy - Play Thing - Play School

PLAYBOOK

TEAM ROSTER

•    Abby = ME U J16
•    Alex = MY P J22
•    Aretha = STAND
•    Beatrice = G6 ROK
•    Brianne = L WALL    •    Emily = SPE K23
•    Jill = ILL K11
•    Josephina = F24 Z ME
•    Katie = D J26 ME
•    Katie A. = F31 TIZ    •    LauraAnn = L15 NOW
•    Lona = DAN D28
•    Lorna = HRR30W
•    Meredith = J6 THEN
•    Zoe = M13 US

BASIC PLAYS

•    BOWLING PINS: 5 dancers line up on the stage left side – kneeling and  facing upstage. Other dancers repeatedly run out of the SL wings and tumble into them moving them further across the space. The last pin still on stage ends up at the bottom of a final group pigpile.
•    CRAZY DIAMOND: a group stands upstage center in a diamond behind ILL K11 and follows her lead, the diamond eventually disperses, and a line moves from upleft to downright across the front and melts to the floor where they then sing “Auld Lang Syne.”
•    ENDLESS CYCLE: F31 TIZ pulls DAN D28 to USR and they begin a low, level contact duet that flows in a clockwise pattern off the stage, through the house up to Row J – across out the House Left doors, down the stairs, and back around again. After 2 cycles – one partner calls out a new dancer who takes her place in the cycle. From then til the end of the work, 1 dancer is replaced with each new cycle.
•    EXPANDING CIRCLE:  D J26 ME begins a thrashing solo in the midst of a closing circle of bodies who perform a tick-tock side step while enclosing and then eventually expanding away and walking in an ever increasing circle that grows beyond the parameters of the proscenium stage and out into the house.
•    FAMILY BED: Everyone lays on the floor at the orchestra pit line in a crush of bodies while ME U J16 wiggles restlessly. Occasionally dancers sit up come to the edge of the stage, sit and stare out at the audience.
•    LINE: everyone lines up the Orch Pit Line
•    LINE & RETURN: everyone lines up and then returns to what they were just doing
•    LOW LYING FOG: several dancers roll across the floor from SR wings to SL wings; then walk on – stop, re-orient and reset to floor – each new stage crossing moves further DS and into the house and across the audience
•    MAD WORLD: SPE K23 solos across the proscenium line
•    ME/YOU/NOW: L WALL calls out a sequence of the words “Me” “You” & “Now” – several dancers respond to “You” by jogging around in a small area downstage; “Me” = sit down where you are; and “Now” means jump off the stage and try to get to prizes in the 3rd or 4th row of seats.
•    OPEN AND RECEIVING: dancers return to their original seats and spin in place with arms open and eyes gazing outward and looking people in the eye.
•    READY TO GO: dancers walk into the house and find another agent/friend – ask them to come with them, pull them to a corner or onstage and tell them a very personal story about themselves or how they feel at that moment or initiate a conversation about how the piece is going. 
•    RUN AROUND: dancers spread across Row J in the House in the doorways of HL and across front of stage. Most HR dancer initiates a physical telephone game, last dancer in the line runs to replace starter after given amount of time. Frequency of changes increases between each run.
•    SWIRLING VORTEX: HRR30W and ME U J16 swirl around each other on the floor DSR
•    TAKE DOWN: F31 TIZ chases STAND and repeatedly pulls her down to the ground while they move on a river and tide pathway.
•    RESISTING PROGRESS: Several dancers kneel all the way upstage, others stand behind them, kneelers begin to crawl slowly, standers allow them a couple steps then drag them back and RESET. Once everyone has reset, crawlers begin again striving for the end of the stage, standers try to impede any forward progress. Whoever makes it off the edge first causes a Total RESET. From the reset line – one person begins to crawl everyone tries to stop her.
•    TRADING CLOTHES: Everyone trades labels by trading clothes.
•    STOP the WORLD: raise your arms and run around like a maniac.