Garage Band: A Site-Specfic Performance 24/05/2012 - 27/05/2012

Garage Band was a piece of music theatre set in a suburban garage in Bristol. The narrative follows the attempts of a ‘singer’ to reconnect with his memory following a mysterious accident, which involved something heavy falling from the sky.With the substantial payout from the corporation responsible for the accident, he sets about reforming his old band and begins a search for a garage that feels like that from his teenage years. His memory is sketchy, but he recalls tiny details of objects and events that accompanied that time of his life and sets about reconstructing them. He even employs two actors to take on the roles of the ‘drummer’ and the ‘bass player’ in an attempt to reconnect with something authentic through the repetition of rehearsal and the materiality of objects.

The story is told through a series of songs and instrumentals.These are accompanied by animation sequences initialed by various scenographic objects that populate the garage -a tool bench; a twittering machine; a sleeping cat, objects that appear to take on a life of their own.The audience are invited from the local community as well as from the producing venue and will sit on the driveway. During the course of the performance, a BBQ is lit and burgers are cooked.The audience and invited to join the band to eat with them and drink coke and beers at the end of the show.

The show was framed as part of my final PhD research into the inter-animation of performers and objects.