MD: I’m workshopping the full hour right before the NOW Festival at this place called Automata in Chinatown – so we’re rough drafting it – and then at the RECAT, I’m going to put up the best, most polished twenty minutes of it
JQ: Oh I see – Oh
MD: Yeah
JQ: So they take portions – so there’ll be several people performing the same night? You’ll be doing puppetry – and somebody else will do..
MD: Yeah – there’s three people that night. Carole Kim will and another man [d. Sabela grimes] who does dance and poetry
JQ: Oh that’s fabulous – Isn’t it?
MD: Yeah so you’ll get a little of everything
JQ: But so – you know – like Christo – wrapped buildings
MD: Right – the flags
JQ: and he did drawings. How do you document what you do?
MD: I take video. And I do a lot of pictures
JQ: Draw?
MD: I draw – yeah
JQ: Because the only way for an artist to get his work out other than that one performance is to have this string of something that shows what you did – right?
MD: Right – and that’s the cool thing about puppet theatre too – is that it’s intimate and people are all on their cell phones now and it’s digital.
JQ: You mean they’re taking pictures of it?
MD: No I mean it’s the way we communicate now. But with this, you get to be in the same room. And you get to see the person creating it and it’s tactile – so
JQ: Do you perform in other kinds of venues than like on a stage?
MD: Yeah – I’ve performed in galleries
JQ: I wondered about that – art galleries…
MD: installations – I would like to do that a little bit more if there’s any curators watching the show
JQ: Because a gallery would be great – wouldn’t it? And then you could have your drawings on the wall
MD: Right –
JQ: I mean you could sell your art
MD: Objects to sell
JQ: Objects
MD: That sounds great – that’s a great idea
JQ: But I think it’s wonderful because it gets what you’re doing out there and it’s a different art form – totally different art form. We’re not used to that. And you just talk – right there while Grandma’s sitting on your lap?
MD: I have a bunch of tables and I’m performing behind them and
JQ: You’re performing behind them so you would be just like Grandma right there on your lap?
MD: Yeah
JQ: And what would Grandma say? And then how do you go to Andrea?
MD: Well this version of Andrea has a nice stand, so I can leave one and then move to the other. The other ones – we’re like figuring it out right now. Putting velcro in places and planning it out so that somebody’s sitting on a sofa while somebody’s standing.
JQ: What about lighting?
MD: We’re working with a fabulous lighting designer at REDCAT and then there’s also some practical lights that are on the stage that are on the stage or in – yesterday I was experimenting with a head lamp and then a
JQ: Oh really…
MD: I was like – Oh I look too much like that seven dwarf – Doc or whatever
JQ: That’s good – Why do you need a director if you’ve written it all? And you’ve done it all?
MD: I really need an outside eye, cause you can’t really see yourself. Like you could see yourself in a monitor but it’s backwards or the mirror, but I love –
JQ: Who is your director?
MD: Michele Spears and she’s wonderful. I know her from working on another show called “Wake Up Your Weird”
JQ: Same thing with puppets?
MD: It’s puppets. It was our friend Leslie Carrara[-Rudolph] who had a children’s show and I know her from the improv world and she’s a director and choreographer, so it’s just great to have an outside eye and she’s also on continuity like she let’s me know if..
JQ: So you do need
MD: like if we said Andrea came there at three o’clock – like you know – she’s good at that
JQ: Oh I see
MD: She’s helping clarify the story a little bit
JQ: I see. I see. So you really do need somebody to help you. I didn’t think you would need it since you wrote it all and perform it – that you wouldn’t need an outside eye. Do you do performances without your puppets?
MD: I do – I just did a fun show called “To Whom It May Concern” and it’s when you read letters from people or people you wish you could write letters to
JQ: Did you write a letter?
MD: I did!
JQ: Who did you wish you could write to?
MD: I wrote to a twenty years ago boyfriend
JQ: You did?
MD: Yeah – I didn’t actually send the letter, but I was like “What happened to you?”
JQ: You didn’t use puppets for that?
MD: No. And the last show I did was called Bride of Wildenstein – The Musical and it was about the cat woman, perhaps you’re friends with her? Jocelyn Wildenstein? No? Good.
JQ: Wildenstein?
MD: Yeah, it was about – who transforms
JQ: Fifty face lifts
MD: So for that one it seemed like masks was a good move
JQ: Did you use?
MD: I used puppets
JQ: Fantastic – did you make them like that?
MD: Well I was her – and I did a live makeup change on stage. I did a song about plastic surgery and did a face change on stage
JQ: Fantastic
MD: And I had other characters be puppets
JQ: So you research all of the things you do
MD: I do – that’s a really big part of it like for this, I looked up every clip on object sexuals – they’re people who fall in love with buildings and statues
JQ: Oh
MD: And other structures
JQ: Big psychosis – huh?
MD: I guess so – but they would say it’s more of a lifestyle or that kind of thing
JQ: Thank you so much
MD: Thank you
JQ: Thanks for watching the Joan Quinn Profiles and Grandma says “bye”. Keep writing to jaquinn1@aol.com