Meet Mr Pyramid The Stillbirth of A Supremely Hopeful Gesture
but first...
Leonard Pitt - "Not For Real" A Master of Motion & Expression
After doing it in 1991 somewhere in Portland OR and then The Lincoln Center in NYC, in 1992 Leonard Pitt and I were planning on going to the then recently dissolved Czechoslovakia to perform his one-man show "Not For Real", maybe tour it around regional festivals once we got there, but eventually the local promoter had to cancel the event. It was a tumultuous time so any number of factors (including an environment that kept Frank Zappa out of Václav Havel's government) may have finalized the decision that any tour was off BUT before I knew that...
Leonard Pitt performing "Not For Real", directed by Rinde Eckertt
"Not For Real"
Program from The Lincoln Center NYC
It was early 1992, a busy year for me at the Exploratorium as I became more and more a constant figure in all the many departments, the keys and the run of the place were inspirational perks I never abused but I did incessantly avail myself of them for access to the people and resources at all hours, routinely saying goodbye to the morning cleaning crew on my way home, maybe with the latest Apple donated Mac chugging away in the McBean Theater booth rendering something to look at in a few hours for a show in a few days.
The nature of the place worked its way into my head and heart and while I was waiting to go to ex Czechoslovakia I wondered if it was time for me to take all the inspirations around me and create a work of my own for the tour, a busker act to perform outside of places Lenny and I might be performing at later- sort of thing. Just from my trips to Stuttgart, Beograde and Wroclaw with George Coates Performance Works I knew there were always festivals going on around all the other arts festivals full of actual enthusiasts and heard it was so across the continent so I was confident I would have an international audience to see anything I cobbled together.
SO what did I have to say to Havel's new republic? Turns out plenty after 12 years of Reagan and Bush Sr. In the course of scribbling notes and connecting dots I came up with a collection of themes, concepts and images that can scarcely be called an outline, more a wish list of topics to cover with as much comedy as possible that would translate across cultures as a cautionary parable for the times.
Once I figured out that it was going to be a puppet show I knew that languages weren't going to be a barrier. I could take my cues from the score no matter the words spoken so all I had to do was get different language translations performed and then mixed onto the final Sound Design. Then, whenever I could deduce the predominant language of a potential audience I could pick the right cassette tape and then On With The Show!
The Stage had to be practical to carry and set up for the easiest possible puppetry. I devised a floorless stage that hung from my shoulders in front of my chest and face and attached at my hips which would allow my arms to reach up through the floor with characters and props, themselves attached wherever it may be convenient.
The designs went pretty far, never prototyped but it included scaled down mechanical theater machines for special effects (a scrolling backdrop for motion, etc)
Mostly Original 1992 Possible Touring Puppet Show Notes
1/ Intro- Mr. MeDia introduces the OLD ORDER. Describes cultivating appetites for more. -Baby sucking breast (The Three Ages of Man)
2/ Mr. MeDia introduces Mr. Skull. My Skull introduces the 'scheme'. Both describe Old Order- transfer of appetite into economy sucking resources dry- Illustrated by Mr. Corporate man sucking on a pyramid.
3/ Mr. Skull/ Mr. MeDia describe the elderly sucking on youth while teaching them to suck on the pyramid.
4/ Mr. MeDia introduces NEW ORDER. Breast and Baby. Give something back to resource. Breast improves its self-image "EXPLOIT THYSELF".
5/ Mr. Pyramid Scheme (Ages Of Man). Pyramid sprouts credit card slot. Corporate Woman sucks on pyramid while Corporate Man runs credit card through slot. He begins to suck on Corporate Woman.
6/ Elder sucking on baby sucking on breast of pyramid. THE NEW IMPROVED ORDER
7/ Mr. MeDia thanks workers and helpers.
IN closing, Militedia and Infotainment NEW ORDER/OLD ORDER The Three Ages of Man (Riddle of the Sphinx) Baby on all fours- Man on Two- Elderly on Three
Intro- Welcome to program/brainwash (get with it!) Sing the praises of the militedia and you for sucking up to it.
The Old Order (VO) 1-developing our appetites/introducing Mr. Skull 2-pyramid scheme as 2nd age of man erupting from the age of gutenberg and the advent of the chain letter. 3-culmination of the Old Order to sustain the elderly (SS) who is no longer active in society as producers. Why is there a New Order when the Old Order works?
Sing the praises of Mr. Presidad for conceiving the New Order which changes nothing which changes everything so everyone is happy.
1st age pt. 2: the breast (nourishment) must learn to exploit thyself 2nd age pt. 2: what it is like in the new order. The pyramid no longer needs people.
PAY FOR THE PRIVILEGE (credit card oversized), the S&B and the S&M bank. Credit Card (hologram skull) and other logos. Baby with a barcode
Characters: MR. MEDIA MR. SKULL MR. PYRAMID A BREAST M?. STATE BABY MR. CORPORATE STATE MAN MS. CORPORATE STATE WOMAN MR. ELDER STATE MAN
IN THE BEGINNING were hungry babies, and much sadness was the result, so ORDER was created out of CHAOS so that Baby would no longer be hungry. Baby would no longer be idle. Baby was put to pasture to feed Babies.
Once, while Baby was satiated in the garden, Baby received the divine calling. I WANT MORE! Go out and create more to satiate my appetite and I will reward you with a kingdom of your own.
A 1000 nipples of light!
When Baby realized the extent of Appetite, Baby recognized the need for help so Baby was rewarded with a companion. Both grew to adulthood, a prerequisite for 'making help'.
So was created the first class structure, Do what I say JUST BECAUSE I'M BIGGER than you. And so more babies were created and there was more appetite in Babys' Kingdom.
FARM SO THAT WE MAY FEED, and there was excess. And Baby grew and grew and there was excess.... And the Kingdom grew so that the garden was swallowed in its vastness and could no longer be found. Baby continued to grow and create excess to meet the needs of appetite.
One day a man received a divine calling and called all other Babies, men and elders to build a monument to appetite and excess and so they toiled.
In the end they looked upon there work and someone named it 'Pyramid'.
And so the game began...
and where it ends, God only knows, eh....
While this was going on I was also continuing to work with Rob Strange, Chris Olson and Scott Street on a number of relatively subversive theater, performance art and publication projects so once I got the general thematic statement for a newly freed socially democratic republic and the concept of the trans-language puppet theater figured out I mentioned it to the others and the ideas started to flow, filling out what barely stood as a skeleton of a narrative parable structure, barely.
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Then it fell apart, we lost the gig and many years later in an interview Frank Zappa told the story of how Havel had sought him out for an official position and how James Baker threatened Havel that if Zappa had anything to do with his new government he'd have to forego aid from the U.S. o' A. In another "kinder gentler" universe I might have performed a subversive puppet show for Zappa and Havel on the streets of Prague.
Interlude With Ulysses Jenkins Pioneering at SF MOMA
And then there was Ulysses Jenkins and SF MOMA.
Pioneered video phone
The gist is Ulysses was using available technology to pioneer popular video tele-prescence for the purpose of using it to build local community and stay connected to remote communities.
it happened that Ulysses Jenkins was then a resident Performing Artist at the Exploratorium and we really hit it off. In the course of his residency we worked on two major events, first in McBean Theater and then at SF MOMA.
Exploratorium October 1992
San Francisco MOMA March 1992
Flashback: Newsman 1999
MJW, Scott Street, Dan Rather & Rob Strange making "Newsman 1999" on the McBean Theater stage
"Newsman 1999" started as an article in the magazine APM and was rewritten as a script once the decision was made to make a puppet show.
The Exploratorium lent the production some scaffolding, a few black curtains and a video projector to rear project the animated background for the foreground puppets.
After "Newsman 1999" in 1991 at the 2nd Festival Fantocchio it was time to use Climate and Exploratorium resources to produce another show.
It's Alive! And it Mutated!!! Mr E. MeDia Presents Newsbreach 2000
It started when Leonard Pitt proposed a possible tour in Czechoslovakia, picked up momentum when Ulysses Jenkins laughed at my jokes, built on the legacy of the Newsman 1999 team building dumpster puppet theater and culminated in an absurd use of technology to annoy an audience hundreds of miles away with a satirical news show complete with commercial interruptions.
MJW, Ulysses Jenkins, Rob Strange and the tedious set up of a revolutionary use of technology, again @ Anon Salon San Francisco, April 1992
Excerpts from the Anon Salon premiere of Mr Media Presents: NEWSBREECH 2000 - "If You Knew What We Know You Would Know What You Need Because We Know What You Need; You Need What We Know"