300 Tapes
I’m doing a show soon.
I recorded 100 stories on 100 micro-cassettes.
So did my friends Frank and Brendan.
We made little libraries. Then, say, I take a tape from one of their libraries and put it in my recorder and plug some headphones in, then rewind. Then I push play and tell one of their stories as if it was one of my own, with a second-delay. They do the same. It all kinda weaves (or “phases”) in and out. There’s a sound designer, Anna, who is basically another character. Then we videotape ourselves doing this “auto-reciting” and…you know how when you talk you move your hands around and scratch your nose and everything? Well, we watch the videotapes of us telling these stories and learn the moves that we unconsciously do when talking. It’s like storytelling choreography. It’s like, “Hey, what’s honest storytelling anyway?” It’s weird and I’m doing it at the Theatre Centre in Toronto December 1-12 or something and then in Calgary for the last 3 weeks of February, whatnot. The company’s called Public Recordings. The stories are funny, mostly, and Ame Henderson (the choreographer) is holy.
300 Tapes, what?