Round One
We started with the question “What is an audience?” We looked for some answers by courting a group of twelve strangers who were selected through a creative application process. For several months, we focused on the small and extraordinary things that made them strange. We visited them at their homes and took them on dates. We gathered as much information as we could on each individual: their most played song on iTunes, family heirlooms, hidden objects in sock drawers, responses to our probing questions. We used that information and our experience of getting to know them as the starting point for a creative response.
On April 1st, 2017, our twelve audience members arrived for a day-long adventure at sites ranging from YBCA to the Headlands Center for the Arts. They experienced one-to-one performances created specifically for them, an instructional folk dance to a setting sun on the beach, a “shit show” of small acts, and a twelve-course dinner with each course based on a specific detail we learned about them.
“On the whole, being an audience member to “For You” reminded me of my wedding, where all kith and kin from different sections of my life were in one place. I remember having thought, on that day, “I will henceforth walk through life with a sense that I am charmed; because I have experienced this, I will forever have a well of magic to draw from.” The only time since I’ve felt that was during “For You” — and I hope, long after.”