Button phrase serves as inspiration
‘I Am a Genius, Does Anyone Here Know Me?’ goes tonight at LSPU Hall
What is genius?
The Oxford Dictionary cites genius as “an exceptionally intelligent person or one with exceptional skill in a particular area of activity.”
Lois Brown has her own definition … based on a saying her late father wore around.
“My dad wore an orange button that said, ‘I am a genius — Everything is genius,’” she said.
She has parlayed that simple button into a show — “I Am a Genius, Does Anyone Here Know Me?” — that will be performed tonight at the LSPU Hall.
She says the show is a spoof of the idea of genius and through her collaboration with composer and sound artist James O’callaghan, they will showcase through their one-hour piece that everyone has genius.
“I have come to believe from doing the show and through the process of research, we all are genius,’’ Brown said Wednesday.
“We all have genius and we own all of the genius. The idea of genius is broad in a universal sense, a sense of wonder,’’ she added.
Brown’s “I Am a Genius, Does Anyone Here Know Me?” uses a microphone, a 30-foot piece of paper, foil saved from Christmas poinsettias and an outdated dictionary Brown inherited from her father after he died of dementia to improvise a sonic choreography of things.
She met O’callaghan at Sound Symposium 2016. Walking into The Ship, she saw him performing his work “Reasons” for amplified books and electronics. Immediately she said this is exactly what she was doing, but far less violent.
“He was playing a book with a microphone and I thought, what are the odds,” she said.
“The thing I noticed right away was I was violent and he wasn’t,’’ she added.
After all, it was her father’s dictionary she was abusing in her own performance.
She said this is a personal performance that explores patience, boredom, democratization and power — memory and dementia through a choreographed and improvised play urging each of us to increase our capacity for relationality with things.
Brown said part of the message from the performance deals with the dementia that claimed her father’s life and also the fact people misunderstand a person’s message.
She said it is important to look at things in its simplest forms and use that philosophy to break down those things to obtain information from any and all sources. An example she gave was the simple process of doing the dishes after dinner.
“It is genius just thinking that if I do the dirty dishes now, they won’t be there in the morning,” she said.
“His button was tongue in cheek and the idea of genius was broad in a universal sense. There is a sense of wonder there.”
The show will be at 8 p.m. Thursday at the LSPU Hall in St. John’s.
“Unmaking Genius” is an interactive performance showcase that encourages performers and audiences to work together to consider how choreography can be created and witnessed. It features excerpts from Lois Brown’s “I Am A Genius, Does Anyone Here Know Me?” a student performance, “Uncaught III,” facilitated by Candice Pike, and activities-to-try for audience members of all abilities.
For more information or to get tickets go to https://artsandculturecentre.com/cornerbrook.