Homo Ludens / 2006

In the spring of 2006, seven Pittsburgh artists (Ben Kinsley, Michelle Fried, Chris Beauregard, Ally Reeves, Jessica Langley, Anne Angyal, and John Peña) collaborated to create a one night performative extravaganza that we called: Homo Ludens (humans at play). There were five main parts and Anne Angyal and myself teamed up to create transitional acts between the larger performances to keep the audience entertained, annoyed, and under control. The performance took place at the Brewhouse theater in the South side of Pittsburgh PA. Our main event was a participatory game of hangman involving about 250 audience members.

HANGMAN

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For this act, we played a couple of games of TIC TAC TOE and Hangman at the front of the theater. We had a camera that projected our drawing onto a large screen so the audience could see. Then we asked the audience to help us play. It was amazingly entertaining and a little disturbing. This typically adolescent game became something more as Anne and I broke the rules in an attempt to keep the hangman alive.

 

A LONG DISTANCE CALL

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On the last act, we called my father to say hello and wish him a happy birthday. Then we asked the audience if they would like to call anybody. A determined woman rushed quickly from the back saying, “Okay everybody, we are going to call my friend and tell him to MAKE GOOD CHOICES.” People thought that we planted her in the audience, but we didn’t know her. She seemed very concerned about her friend and so we called him.