Making Out with the Gods

[errantember]

Went to see the Rude Mechanical's Re-enactment of Dionysus in '69 at the Off Center tonight. Other than the first fifteen of the last twenty minutes, it was awesome, with clear storytelling despite the chaos and spastic nudity. That fifteen minutes I was writhing around in the middle of the set making out with one of the actresses who pulled me out from under my platform, so I wasn't able to concentrate my critical judgment on anything more than her neck.

Which was pretty hot.

Comments

[rkentspeth.livejournal.com]

Sweet!

This reminds me of some stuff I used to go to in NY.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

The non-verbal consent negotiation was interesting.

And it definitely seem like something you'd see in New York.

One of these days I'm going to actually *go* to New York and test that theory.

[spottedvasa.livejournal.com]

How did the non-verbal consent negotiation work?

[errantember.livejournal.com]

She had pulled me out to dance earlier, which caused a minor hiccup because they wanted people to take off their shoes, but I was wearing my lace-up combat boots. Then I went back to my seat and took of my boots and my jacket in case there were more opportunities later. She then came and beckoned me out during the orgy scene and kind of prodded me out onto the main performance floor. Other actors were doing the same with other audience members. The cast was about 12 people, and I think about 8 or 9 of them did this, though I can't be sure because I was rolling around on the floor.

I had read the synopsis, and watched the videos by the original producer, so I had some idea how things were supposed to flow. She was obviously looking for something at least pseudo-erotic for the scene, so the negotiation was mainly a matter of slowly trying things and gauging reactions to see how far we could go. For instance, facial touching was cool, and a small amount of closed-mouth kissing, but when I tried doing open-mouthed kissing, I got the signal that that was over the line, so I stopped. Earlier in the show, another actor had pulled a woman who seemed to be straight from the audience, and slowly seduced her into stripping to topless in front of the entire show. He had touched her breasts. I didn't go quite that far, but I thought about it. So mainly it was a lot of body grinding and touching and facial contact, with simulated open-mouthed kissing once I got the vibe that that was what she wanted. It would be very interesting to see it from an outside perspective, and they were videotaping and had our permission to use the tape for commercial production, so it might eventually be available.

Katzen (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.prickmag.net/enigmafeature1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.prickmag.net/enigmakatzenfeature.html&h=249&w=400&sz=48&tbnid=qD9ipkOmkBAYLM:&tbnh=77&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Benigma%2Band%2Bkatzen%2Bpictures&usg=__QgZKc6yFdK44JVonGnpArTSoGDQ=&ei=XlstS6fOF4aVtgf3xZmBCQ&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=3&ct=image&ved=0CAsQ9QEwAg) just walked by. :)

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

Now THAT sounds like my kind of show. ;)

Glad to hear you had fun! :D

[ladydreamtime.livejournal.com]

It was sold out, so rainking1 and I are going Sunday night.

[errantember.livejournal.com]

You will enjoy it, and it should be interesting, from a theater perspective, to see the last show. You know how this kind of experimental stuff evolves over the course of a production. You might want to bring easy-to-remove clothes and shoes for dancing and other participation.