Ennyman's Territory: 3N6D, Second Verse Layered Over the First

Sunday, February 28, 2010

3N6D, Second Verse Layered Over the First

"What did you see when you were there?
Nothing that doesn't show."

~ Lennon-McCartney

The second of three 27-minute shows called 3N6D took place last night at The Venue @ Mohaupt Block. Tonight will be the third and final event, and I am already calling for an encore.

Saturday night's setting was the same but the game was played on a whole other level. Right off you could see things had been altered. The rows of chairs for the audience had been set on risers which helped us visually. The props which Jill Ellen Hall had carried in the night before -- the strange staff, the silver box, the umbrella -- were now scattered about on the stage, patiently (or even impatiently) awaiting new attentions. The lights dimmed. Without fanfare, this very special space in time came alive once more.

A feature of the show was to be its layerings. The left screen was evidently John Heino's wall to fill with photographic images. The pictures projected there incorporated images from Friday night's show, along with other layers of images. This would have been worth seeing on its own and I do hope we'll get an opportunity to study these images in more depth sometime, perhaps in his FaceBook gallery or even book form. Chani Becker's evocative filmography filled the right screen. Jill Ellen Hall creatively filled the space in between, with her shadows, props and other antics.

Holding it all together, and elevating the juxtapositions to a higher level of interconnection, was Alan Sparhawk's sound track. How does one describe an experience like this? Words of any kind seem trite, and are certainly inadequate. This may be why artists do performances. If there were words adequate to the task of conveying the electric emotions stirred up, then we would simply use words and skip all this production jazz. But words fail, and like cobwebs must sometimes be swept aside in order to see in a new way.