My friend and fellow Computation, Organization & Society-ier Peter worked/helped/coordinated bringing the Neo-Futurists to Carnegie Mellon.
They performed the first of two shows tonight; the second is tomorrow at 9PM in Porter Hall. They performed Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (doesn’t too much light make anyone go blind?), a collection of thirty ever-changing plays performed in exactly sixty minutes–yes they have a timer on stage.
This works by providing each member of the audience with a “menu” with a list of the thirty titles, and they string across the stage a clothesline with thirty pieces of paper pinned to it, each with a play number on the front (and the title on the back for their own reference) which they pull down as the audience calls out the order of the pieces.
They are all written by members of the Neo-Futurists, and people seem to have designated plays that they perform thus the playbill is dependent on the present members. TMLMTBGB has been continuously performed for the last nineteen years with two to twelve plays being swapped in and out each week, they tell us.
The pieces range from hilarious to existential and personal to profound. I believe my favorite was “A Green That’s Hard to Describe,” a paint-swatch dance that defines the only two shades of green that are hard to describe are: the sea under a crimson sky and vomit; while recalling issues of sexuality and self-image.
Anyway, if you are in Pittsburgh, go to their show tomorrow, if you are in Chicago they do this thrice weekly (I think) and enjoy having bubblegum thrown at you by someone dancing the entire Madonna Confessions step (while the other members play jenga on stage); learning what the coupon kimono is; defining raisins; and witnessing stereotyped gypsies steal from you.