After choregorapher and performance artist Patrick Scully finished teaching his "Improvisation For Performance" workshop and giving his performance recently at LinkÂ's Hall in Chicago, he flew off to Ireland to learn to speak Gaelic. After that, itÂ's back home to Minnesota to run PatrickÂ's Cabaret and to work on his own performance projects.
HereÂ's what we talked about during the first of his two-week workshop in Chicago.
Gregg Shapiro: Ironically, the space downstairs of Links Hall was once known as Lower Links and was a home to a variety of different types of performers, a sort of "cabaret" space. Please tell me how you went about creating "PatrickÂ's Cabaret."
Patrick Scully: My intention was that I had some stuff that I was working on, but didnÂ't have enough to do a whole evening of my own work. I went through my Rolodex and called some friends who were writers, other dancers, performance people and said that I had this space. The school that I was teaching at didnÂ't have any money to pay me so I was doing a barter where I taught creative movement to the kids in exchange for use of their great, old gym when school was closed. It was this sort of inner-city liberation Catholic School where they were totally happy to have this gay man on staff, and they were totally cool with me using the gym when it wasnÂ't being used. So, I had access to this space and we put together a night of eight of us performing and handed out flyers to our friends. Lots of people came up to me after the show and said, "Gosh, this was really neat. WhenÂ's the next one going to be? How does a person get to perform in one of these?" It was a big, cavernous room with these long, 1940s vintage cafeteria tables. We set the tables up and put candles on them. I think we had six theater lights and a dimmer board. We did what we could to transform the space and make it a space for performance. It definitely had a sense of character. It was so big that it allowed for some things to happen, like I remember this guy David Lindahl, who was a very active performance artist who is no longer alive, who came in this one night riding on a bicycle in a mini-skirt and red high heels while this "tico tico" music is being played through the stereo system. One thing lead to another and the demand from the audience and the performers, was such that it made it easy to continue it.
Early on I realized that it could be a lot of work, and if I donÂ't invent systems that are really easy to duplicate, itÂ'll be too much work. I tried to create it in such a way that you just had to crank the wheel again instead of having to rebuild it. It lived for its first three years in the gym at St. StephenÂ's school and then I moved into a store apartment space and at the time I moved in there I realized I could move the cabaret in there, and we would lose some space but gain intimacy. It also made it more affordable to live in the storefront, because the rent was a little more than I could pay. Having the cabaret in the space made it possible. It was modeled on the Walker Arts CenterÂ's choreographerÂ's evening from 20 years before in which the evening was different people doing dance, but nobody had the whole evening. With the cabaret, I wanted to do the same sort of thing, but not limited to dance. It could be anything that might be onstage. We had spoken word, film and video, classical and all types of music, stand-up comedy.
GS: Were you able to bring in people from out of town?
PS: Most people, when they come to town from someplace else are looking for an opportunity to do a whole night themselves. I only give anybody 15 minutes. It works to have people from out of town as long as theyÂ're willing to be part of a shared evening.
GS: Compared to the other cities in which youÂ've worked and performed, what makes the performance scene in Minneapolis unique and special?
PS: Probably the biggest thing that makes it special is money from private foundations. I think itÂ's influenced by the fact that some of the first Europeans to come to Minnesota and establish a cultural ethos were Scandinavians. They brought with them a populist ideology. Many of the corporations that have their home-bases in Minnesota have, in order to participate in the old-boysÂ' network, thereÂ's an understanding that you contribute five percent of, I donÂ't know if itÂ's pre- or post-profits, to philanthropy. Most of it still goes to the high art houses. But it has allowed for things to get established. ThereÂ's the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the Busch Foundation, which are major players in terms of supporting the arts. For me, as a radical-faerie, queer, HIV-positive, out performance artists ... "PatrickÂ's Cabaret" gets money from the St. Paul Companies, which is a conservative insurance company in St. Paul. The level of support that there is for the arts in Minnesota and the Twin Cities in particular, is what I think should be the baseline for all of the U.S., but itÂ's the pinnacle.
GS: Do you think Gov. Ventura will be able to get that message across?
PS: Politically, things can be very confusing in Minnesota. Our last governor was a Republican. One of the last things he did before leaving was to double the budget of the state arts board. The reason he gave was that he could remember his father, who was a Swedish immigrant, saving his pennies to buy a new opera record. So his father saving for records tugged at Arne CarlsonÂ's heartstrings, and he decided he should increase support for the arts. And this is a Republican governor. It took a lot of lobbying and from the cultural community in Minnesota to make it happen. The state is in some ways a player. Public funding for the arts in Minnesota is not nearly as important, in terms of its share of the pie, as it is in most places. The city of Minneapolis has started to catch on, but itÂ's traditionally been a non-player in the cultural community. ItÂ's odd, because we have this thriving arts scene happening. The city is just now hiring its first ever director of cultural affairs.
GS: Please tell me something about your "improvisation for performance" workshops.
PS: IÂ've been watching people perform and use improvisation for a long time. When I watch people onstage, I get really frustrated when I donÂ't know whatÂ's going on or why the personÂ's onstage or what theyÂ're trying to communicate to me. I feel like if I donÂ't get it, after all the years IÂ've been working in performing arts, there are going to be a lot of other people who feel the same way. A lot of people internalize it and feel like if they donÂ't get it then somethingÂ's wrong with them that theyÂ're not understanding it. My goal, with this workshop, is to focus on expression in performance so that people are finding access to whatÂ's happening inside and letting it in a way that ... when you watch any two or three year old, you know exactly whatÂ's going on. You never have to ask a two year old how he or she feels. ItÂ's right there on the surface. With this workshop, I want to help people find access back to that emotional immediacy.
