Bath house 15 February 2010

The event, in which I was in attendance, began today at precisely 12:30pm in the Student Center's auditorium. I, having very limited experience in such events, wasn't sure what to expect. As I walked into the door I couldn't believe how full the auditorium already was, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find a seat. Luckily a seat was found and I was able to have a good view of what was about to be an interesting performance to say the least.

The even began with a reading of "Is this wool hat my wool hat?". Something that caught me a little off guard. It was almost a round sung as opposed to a poem per say. The 4 students, each with their own tone of voice, began rambling that same line over and over. Until I noticed that they had changed the order of their words and became slowly independent of each other. Each were still saying the same 7 words, but in the order of which I couldn't make out. I was able to pinpoint each individual voice calling out, but I could also listen to the group as a whole. Each individual were like many who may scream out in this world trying to determine where their role may be within the group. An interesting conclusion if I do say myself, considering that everyone goes through that same prospect at one point in their lives. "Is this my role?" screaming, trying to be overheard by the mass of individuals screaming the same question to their peers. Something that I didn't understand however was that there wasn't any sort of conclusion to the poem... it just ended.

The presentation of Stephanie Rowden followed the performance. A completely different approach as her time was geared more toward the realm of academia. Her specialty was the auditory approach of how different sounds effect individual listeners. These were illustrated and finally culminated in her expression of the spoken voice. This came together quite nicely as she was able to do what all of us attempt to do, tell a story. Whether it's the tale of a young boy being hit by a car, or an old man that doesn't garden as much as he leads on. All were stories being told by sounds and the spoken word. An interesting approach I must admit, and can be related to writing by the fact that it's attempt is the same as any artist putting themselves out there to get a reaction out of the people that they're trying to reach.

The third and final performer was Stephen Benson. An author of many books (some of which are on sale near the exit) that took an approach that I was actually expecting to take, however with a little bit of a twist. While I was expecting people to stand before me and read their work, I wasn't expecting that to be done on a set and performed like a one man show. It was a little difficult to follow, proof coming from the many people leaving (Maybe they had class or something since the event ran a little over), but from what I got from it was that he was attempting to digest all the reading that we're required to do in our lives in a brief time frame. Reading from emails, text books, novels, screen plays, or the like, he put on a show that got the point across. That point of course is that we have a lot of mediums to get our story told and shouldn't be limited to just the one. It was improvised and he was able to give the entire performance some continence, but I fear that I was lacking somehow in being able to determine a deeper point than that. I did enjoy him linking the two performances before him into his, and even found some point rather funny.

Eat a Sweet potato.