(Credit: Jessica Alpern)

Infinite Exploration

Fusebox Festival pushes towards new ground in performance, creativity, and entertainment

By William Bass

Published April 20, 2011

They lure us in with the promise of an infinite party. While festivals often make good on that promise, occasionally they can seem like a drag, as attendees are crushed by the sheer number of bodies, lack of space, and high food and drink prices.

For those looking for a little introspection with their entertainment, the Fusebox Festival, April 20–May 1, offers attendees a chance to experience and interact with some of the greatest minds in theater, comedy, dance, cooking, and art installation.

The festival-going experience goes beyond the passivity of other notable events in Austin, serving as an idea engine powered by both artist and attendees. “At its heart, it’s about conversation and ideas. A place to talk about being alive in the world today,” states Fusebox artistic director Ron Berry. “The artists at Fusebox are challenging us, pushing us forward, entertaining us, and helping us reimagine what’s possible.”

While the festival’s programming might seem a little intimidating, all of the performances retain a “now” vitality that everyone can relate to. “I like the idea that kids and dogs can like a lot of the work at Fusebox,” adds Berry, “and even though we’re pushing form and often challenging things, the intention behind it is to get at something that is more relevant.”

I’ve Never Been So Happy

If anything, the goal of Fusebox seems to be pushing the boundaries of different performance media while keeping the pulse of the entertainment value rapid, and no other show encapsulates that better than the Rude Mechanical’s I’ve Never Been So Happy.

“I’ve Never Been So Happy is a western musical that tracks the adventures of our heroine, Annabellee, as she plots to escape the tyranny of tradition, falls unexpectedly in love, and bridges the gap between the old and new West; and a young man, Jeremy, whose mother tied him to the last mountain lion in Texas to teach him how to be a man,” explains one of the Rudes, Lana Lesley.

That description is just a fleck of snow on the iceberg, as the piece is a madcap musical that features talking dachshunds, a feminist commune squaring off against a real estate developer, puppets, and a mountain lion with a penchant for death metal. “The show fluxuates freely between high art and Hee-Haw, treating both with respect. The music by Peter Stopschinski pits a Grand Ole Opry-style West against an El Topo-style West. The writing by Kirk Lynn butts lyric poetry up against bar jokes with finesse,” states the Rude’s press release.

As if the show itself wasn’t inspiring enough, the Mechs spill this “trans-media” experience outside and onto the street after the show, where the audience members get the chance to participate in activities of which one’s Southern grandpa would surely approve. Want to learn how to make a rope, prank call a Yankee, or sing a country ballad? The bizarre carnival after the show is worth the price of the ticket itself — how often does one get to learn the art of rope making?

“Honestly, we are just trying to have a good time with this show, and to continue doing things we’ve never done before,” says Lesley. “We named it I’ve Never Been So Happy to remind ourselves that we agreed that if ever for one second it became a drag to make this piece, we would stop immediately.”

Biography of a Physical Sensation

Based on the diaries of one woman, Jamie Damon, Biography of a Physical Sensation recreates the experiences of Damon’s life in the audience members themselves. “We touch the audience, blindfold them, put things in their mouths, ask them to perform physical feats, and on and on,” says Josh Meyer, a member of Rubber Reperatory and one of the show’s creators. “There are both painful and pleasurable sensations, violent and sexual sensations, and things far more mundane.”

To assuage the fears of the more apprehensive, the show is to look as if Goldilocks walked into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, with chairs of varying sizes — the size of the chair determining the intensity of the experience — arranged in a circle for everyone’s viewing pleasure.

Tired of the antiquated ways that performance approached biography, Meyers decided to skip the foreplay of traditional storytelling, letting the audiences’ senses narrate and figure out the story for themselves.

“We wanted to approach the genre of ‘biography’ in an alternative way,” states Meyers. “So we decided to throw out narrative and dialogue, and any sense of context, and present one actual person’s life entirely through sensory elements – tastes, touches, smells, and sounds that are performed on the audience.”

Indeed, Rubber Repertory seems to be reanimating the rotting cadaver of theater, refreshingly carving out its own strange life between theater and performance art. Likewise, Biography of a Physical Sensation gives attendees a few things that they are most likely starved for.

“Our performances are oriented towards creating community in the audience, giving each spectator an experience that’s unique from the rest of the group, and touching people in ways that radically violate the decorum of theatre.”

The Bench

Dissolving distinction between art and life seems a perennial dream. Many of the installations at Fusebox are making this dream a reality, from Play Me I’m Yours — playable pianos scattered around Austin public spaces — to the groundbreaking The Bench: a 45-minute “experience” designed for two people in which the participants receive instructions through headphones which tell you what to say and what to do: Each participant hears different synchronised tracks — and through following the instructions and responding to them, dialogue and small actions easily effortlessly occur.

“To begin with, the piece plays upon the very real tensions you can expect, sit next to someone who you don’t know, but apparently ‘should’,” states Ant Hampton, one of The Bench’s creators. “Expectations and guesswork about the other person are scrutinized, unpicked. If this is an experience everyone has had before, the piece allows for it to happen again but this time in a way which allows each element to be looked at more carefully.”

One might question the artistic value of having two strangers meet. For Hampton, the project seems to function like a booby trap of creativity — as the work sets the tripwire for strange, novel, and creative experiences between two people.

“Deliberately bringing two people together can be thought of as a creative act; like an artist, the ‘Connector’ [the person who created the installation] keeps an eye on her work, following its progress as it leaves her hands and slips into the world, hopeful for it to cause further ripples.”

All in all, the experience offers a fresh way to engage with a stranger, as participants can taste the awkwardness, magic, and fun of a first encounter without the stress of having to think of what to actually say.

One of the main draws for the festival is its length and diversity. Clocking in at over ten days, with forward thinking music, dance, comedy, and gastronomy, the festival offers an extended arts-buffet where everyone can find something known, and strange, that they can fill up on.

For tickets, performances, and information regarding Fusebox Festival, visitwww.fuseboxfestival.com

For information about participating in the The Bench, go towww.anthampton.com/benchstrangerfb.html