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Vol. 38, No. 18 |
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2-6-2008 Wexner Center recruits the untrained and untested to ‘star’ in recent productions
“I’ve gone to Wexner Center events for years but never thought I could participate in one,” said Bob Eckhart, a lecturer with the colleges of Education and Human Ecology and Humanities.  “I was just hoping some of the ‘magic dust’ of the Wex would rub off on me. I mean, how many people actually get to perform in Wexner Center pieces? It’s unprecedented.”While not entirely true — back in the early 1990s, there was a production by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company that used community members — Program Associate Barbara Thatcher agrees the experience of bringing in outside volunteers is both exciting and fraught with unique perils. Thatcher, herself a dancer and choreographer, was responsible for recruiting volunteers for “Hey Girl!” and “Poetics: a ballet brut,” a performance by Nature Theater of Oklahoma, which runs through Feb. 8. “It was a bit of a trick,” Thatcher said, nibbling on a pastry in the Wexner Center’s café. “The company doing ‘Hey Girl!’ needed 40 male volunteers, and I got about 38 signed up, but only about 28 showed up for the rehearsal.” Even though the numbers weren’t quite right, Thatcher said, she was impressed with the variety of individuals her publicity efforts brought in. She posted invitations on electronic venues such as OSU Today and the Wexner Center Web site, spread the word around the theater and dance departments and even went to several yoga studios in Columbus with invitations to participate. “We had guys from the Medical Center, we had long-time faculty members and we even had a 14-year-old aspiring actor whose mom works in Development,” Thatcher said. “We had a number of men in their 40s and 50s who hadn’t done anything like this in years and years, and we had a lot who’d never done this kind of thing before and were just curious about it. And many guys wanted guarantees they didn’t have to know anything about dancing or acting!” What they did have to know, says Thatcher, was how to make it look like they were beating the stuffing out of a tiny female performer with black pillows. Richard Ades, the theater critic for The Other Paper, was one of the men who answered the call. In his Jan. 17 review, he wrote that getting the attack just right was surprisingly difficult: Pillows flew out of pillowcases, some attackers weren’t swinging their weapons with enough gusto while others were going at it too realistically, etc. Even with the complications, Thatcher said the experience was a success and the volunteers pulled off their two minutes of fame well. So well, in fact, that she was not unwilling to take on the next challenge — which turned out easier. Getting volunteers for “Poetics: a ballet brut” went more smoothly because the search wasn’t limited to just men and because the company only asked for 20 people. Of course, as these things tend to work out, Thatcher got more than 40 volunteers — and only five are men. These volunteers — whom the principals of the New York-based Nature Theater of Oklahoma call “The Secret Surprise Dancers” — had a bit more work to do, however. Two six-hour rehearsals, a litany of simple dance movements or gestures and some serious coordination between troupe members and the extras translate into a fairly intense commitment for these extras, whose only payment is a bit of dinner and the chance to say they did it. So why do they do it? For Bob Paschen, a staff writer for ThisWeek newspapers, it was a “What the heck?” kind of moment. He said the experience was amazing. “The use of volunteers by the Wexner Center allows people to become part of the art that’s shown and to look outwardly at the patrons. And I think it might have added a sense of realness to the production,” he said. “Anyone who has a chance to do it, should,” he added.
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