I am soliciting thoughts and ideas.
I am working on a new piece called Appointment,, which will have its first in-progress performance at Prelude next month. It’s a series of repeatable performances for one performer and one viewer.
Right now I’m writing and thinking, and here’s what I’m hoping I can pull off: I want to ask the viewer a question that is general enough that the viewer feels like he/she is making up a response that is really her/his own. Meaning, it has to not feel like multiple choice.
BUT, I also want to craft what follows their response so that it feels like I just answered you and you alone, that I tailored the piece totally personally in the moment, for you. That the viewer changed the course of the work.
To me this means I either improvise each response on the spot, which would take some practice, and I don’t even know if it’s possible, or I come up with a range of, say, five responses, which could feel personal enough, memorize them all, and choose the one that seems most appropriate to that viewer.
What do you think I should do?
Can you imagine the kind of question that could provoke a limited, but seemingly free, number of responses?
Please feel free to comment or write me.