Eight Actions in Five Minutes For Two Performers By Jeremy Rosenstock Dedicated to Christian Kuhlman and Eugene Kwong Performance Notes: • The length of actions should be determined based on personal taste on part of the performers. No action should take more than one minute. • For actions with contrasting or differing parts, performers can and should determine their specific roles in the action before performance. • Any and all actions within the score, save for the first and last, may be performed in any order. All other actions should be determined through randomization procedures prior to performance. While no performance should utilize the same order of actions, the performers may look at the actions briefly before performance and keep the order onstage for reference (albeit in a discreet location outside of the audience’s view). • At the end of each action, each performer should freeze in their final position of the action; this posture should be held in complete silence for about 5-15 seconds between movements. The specific duration may be predetermined based on the personal taste of the performers. Performance Actions: 1. Beginning at the lowest sound possible within the voice, both performers should glissandi to the highest echelon of the vocal range in unison. Beginning by humming and ending with the sound “ah,” a crescendo should be completed across the duration of the gesture. While the contour of the action should be ascending, brief moments of descending are also allowed assuming that the teleology of the action is not completely disrupted and both performers stay together. The action should occur in the duration of three breaths taken in sync by both performers. The opening should be pianissimo and the ending should be nearly yelled at a fortissimo dynamic, ending with an abrupt cut-off to silence. 2. Completing an impression of a lion’s roar, one performer should imitate the percussion instrument while the other imitates the sound of the animal. The action should begin so as to give the impression that both performers are imitating the same idea. The performers should start looking in opposite directions and turn towards one another across the duration of the action. Once it becomes clear that both are imitating different actions, both performers should abruptly stop and look away from each other, deeply ashamed. The imitation should begin only with sound and end with a full body impression, with both performers taking on a neutral opening posture. 3. Starting sparse and getting increasingly dense in texture, both performers should slap their own arms and legs as if mosquitoes are surrounding them. Once a peak density of slapping occurs, each performer should take a respite from slapping to briefly reconsider their methods for killing insects. Afterwards, both should instead slap and flick the others’ limbs somewhat deliberately so as to seemingly finally kill the bugs, ending with the performers holding the position of
the last killing of a mosquito. Both performers should begin by not attempting to slap when the other is slapping. 4. Standing in a proper posture and looking directly at the audience, both performers should attempt to say the alphabet at the same time. One performer should start at the beginning and the other at the end. Enough time should be taken between letters so as to make sure that all letters are said at the same time. It is nevertheless expected that certain utterances are out of sync, provided that both performers act increasingly distraught and disappointed after each failure. The alphabet should be said until both performers are too angry or frustrated to continue. 5. Performers should sit down cross-legged on the floor; each musician should close their eyes and begin to breathe deeply in-and-out, as if meditating. Each performer should pay close attention to the others’ breathing, beginning by breathing together and slowly drifting apart as if phasing. Once completely out of phase, both performers should stand up, reach towards the ceiling with their arms as if stretching while yawning. The performers should hold their mid-yawn posture at the end. 6. Both performers should enthusiastically explain their favorite contemporary classical pieces at the same time, facing directly at the audience while speaking loudly as if inebriated at a party. This action should be completed to give the impression of “mansplaining” while acting condescending to the audience. Both monologues should end with the phrase “So, do you want to go back to my place?,” after a snap to set the performers in unison. 7. Imitate a lion’s roar (referring back to action two); if this is the second time this action is required, both performers should play opposite roles to the ones they completed before, looking enthusiastic that both are finally on the same page but more embarrassed than before once it becomes clear that neither are imitating the same sound again. If this is the first time this action occurs in performance, follow the instructions for action two and follow this action description for whenever a repeat occurs. 8. Wandering around in separate circles across the performance space, both performers should click their tongues or whistle their favorite melody from the classical canon. The circles in which both walk should become increasingly large, with the performers eventually walking out of the performance space into the audience or out of the venue itself. The piece concludes whenever the performers have been gone for enough time so as to induce awkward clapping.