AN OUTLINE FOR OUR CONVERSATION: 

To the Interviewee: Following are sets of questions that we believe will be of help as you prepare for this interview. We are under no obligation to follow these questions; but these 'kinds' of questions can help in the creation of our histories. Everyone involved in the Gatherings Project understands that all Interviews will be the creation of the people present in the moment. 

THE PRELIMINARIES (Briefly): 

We do not have to address all of the following, but if it helps to introduce yourself, and provides context to our conversation 

Describing myself: Could you describe the artistic practice, if any, that is a part of your life and work, as you normally do when anyone asks you 'what you do' and 'what you have done.' This is a good starting point for any conversation. The following questions and topics of conversation follow up on this description. 

Your Training and Education: How did you become interested in this practice? Describe the kind of training or education that best prepared you for your artistic practice? 

You as an Audience Member: What kinds of performances were you exposed to when you were growing up--in any medium (live performance, film, television...something else?). How to you believe they influenced you as an artist, and as someone who watches performance? 

THOSE FIRST INFLUENTIAL EXPERIENCES AT AND IN PERFORMANCE 

In brief: Please tell us about the most impressive and the most influential experiences you have had in the theatre, and in particular an early experience that inspired a change in the course of action for you--whether to perform yourself, or to attend more performances, or perhaps the experience changed the way you thought about the world. This is a tall order, of course. But we have time--let's talk. 

Important Events: Clearly attendance at performance events has been very important to you in your life and career. Asking you to choose just one in particular that 'changed your life' is already an unfair 'leading question.' And yet, it does happen that, as we reflect on our own personal histories, we repeatedly return to moments that we consider to have been seminal in shaping our attitudes toward art and life. If there is one, I would like to hear about it. If there is more than one, let's talk about more. We'll let the conversation grow as it needs to grow. However many we discuss, I would like to take these, one by one, and ask you to describe the experience. 

In General: We have asked you to list one signficant early event. Why would you list this event, and how do they represent the larger narrative of your experience as an audience member? What is the 'story' of your life as someone who attends performance practice? What origins, development, change? How would you characterize this experience overall? 

More Specific to the Event: 

We are interested in your general experience, and in what impressed you, but also in specific information that will help us to imagine the experience better. We would like to reach further into the experience. So: 

Going to the Performance Space: What was it like to go to that performance space? What were the streets like around the space? What did the outside look like? What did it look like inside, the lobby and the place where you saw the performance? What were the seats like, the walls, the ceiling, and the stage? Can you 'walk me through it,' verbally? 

The Audiences: What were your fellow audience members like? Can you describe them, characterize them in general? Can you remember specific people, how they were dressed, how they behaved? 

The Performance Space: Describe the performance space, its sets, lighting, sound--or what would be defined in this way if it was a 'theatrical' space. How did these things affect you, change the way you watched the performance? 

Performance 'Style': Describe the performers and the styles of performance, if you can characterize them in this way. What stood out to you, and what was 'normal' to you? 

Significant Memories of this Event: What was it about this production that makes you remember it so well, and consider it so important in your life? Sometimes it's one moment, sometimes a costume--sometimes it isn't about the performance at all, but something before, after, or off in the distance.... 

INsignificant Moments: What parts of this performance do you not remember well, when you think about it? What is cloudy, and what is clear? Would you care to speculate as to why these memories have clouded over? 

PRIOR Moments: What prompted you to attend this event, and what preconceptions, so far as you remember, did you have before you attended? This can be difficult to remember after the fact--but it's interesting to consider why you (or those who decided on your behalf to take you) wanted to go (and that's if you wanted to go!) and what you thought you were going to. 

More General Thoughts: What else would you like to talk about with respect to this event? And, more generally, how does this event fit into the broader history of your experience as a member of an audience, or as a performer? And, finally, are there any thoughts you have about this early memory, that relate to this present pandemic moment of relative isolation? As the interviewer, I have no answer to this, or preconceptions as to an answer. But it is always relevant to ask how this moment relates to an act of memory. We remember differently, no doubt, because of the pandemic