omfg and other hysterical things

Before getting into much let me say I am beyond humbled and thrilled and terrified and ecstatic about this residency.
First, the staff at Counterpulse are amazing. This feeling of being supported is both delightful and totally foreign, but it’s a feeling i could get used to. so first, and for real THANK YOU to all the CP folks. Second, I can’t believe Joe Goode will be mentoring this project. I dont even have words for this… more on that later.
i feel like one lucky fucking duck.

I’ll be making a new work, that follows threads from my last work Fingerbird

Laura Arrington “Fingerbird” excerpt 2 from hilary Jacobs on Vimeo.

I’m joined in the process by performers Atosa Babaoff, Rachael Dichter, Liz Tenuto, and Ashley West Roberts.
with this blog, i will try and be as real and accessible as possible. Jessica Robinson Love said something along the lines of “we believe the more access the audience has into the process etc. the more invested they’ll be, and if you don’t agree I’ll ask that you try it out.” (I’m grossly misquoting, sorry Jessica… but i love that she said this and i’m on board)

For me, the naming of a work is often the major doorway into in it. trust is a major part of my rehearsal process… and the naming gives the trust a life. I have something to trust, beyond my own ideas. I trust the work, not just myself…. i pick titles because i like them… i pick titles that i like to say, and that like ripe peaches, make me blush.
i picked the title last night… it’s
“Hot Wing” …….. or perhaps “Hot Wang”
the wang being wing as translated to southern twang.
waaangs… more arkansas(where a lot of my family are) than louisiana.
Most work i do, has greasy southern fingerprints all over it.
here’s an example

Hot Wang, is probably a feminist work. We are looking at authenticity and artifice in representations of gender, sex, and violence.
In Fingerbird, I looked a little more at violence directed against women, sexualizing the submissive…but in this work I’m looking more at aggression in woman, especially the sexualizing of violence.
I’m also interested in how the emoting woman has become a charicature. the hysterical woman has become an archetype.
if you’d like to try a simplified exercise from rehearsal last week
hit play on

then scream for the duration, or if you prefer become a rabid dog to the song.
until later
Laura/Larry

here’s the very first marker sketch of the set idea. it’ll be mostly huge black and white cardboard piece. kind of an enormous mobile, that gets colored by the performers during the show. like a coloring book installation… (assuming i can get this image to upload)