Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Confines of one single minute give way to creativity and fun on both sides of the stage
Things are about to get weird. Live in America, an artist community and residency program based in Springdale, will present an event new to the region called 60-in-60 at 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at The Medium in downtown Springdale. The event is free and open to the public, thanks to funding by the Tyson Family Foundation, but guests are encouraged to register before arriving.
The concept is to bring 60 artists on stage, one at a time, to perform for 60 seconds each. It’s not unlike an open mic program, but it has that one minute limit to keep things going, and the performances will range wildly. Artists are encouraged to do all kinds of activities, not just singing or speaking.
“Brush up on your best singing, dancing, reading, balleting, acting, reciting, twirling, dog tricking, clowning, short-lecturing, pontificating, video projectioning, karaoke-madnessing, instrument playing, fashionizing, Play-Doh performancing, ventriloquist delights, feats of strength, fantastical lights, sound landscaping, roller skating and join us on the 60-in60 stage!” reads a Live in America call for applicants on Instagram.
Carra Martinez, Co-Artistic Director of Fusebox leading Live in America, said she’s been doing an iteration of the event for about 20 years and is looking forward to seeing how it goes and how the audience receives it in Northwest Arkansas.
“We started doing it in Austin [Texas] when we were really young artists,” Martinez said. “It was a way to have fun together, to have like a creative restriction of 60 seconds …”
When the event first developed, they didn’t have any rules for the artists involved, which led to some surprising and messy moments. One year early on, they put the event on in a warehouse theater.
“There was a kind of famous cellist who brought out a shop vac, and we were all like ‘whoa,’” Martinez said. They didn’t know what to expect or have any clue what would happen next. “He poured a can of black pepper, reverse flowed it, and it caused cartoon-level sneezing. We had to stop the show for everyone to go outside.”
While funny, if inconvenient and a little uncomfortable, those sorts of experiences gave way to the rules that the artists agreed to for this event. Live in America developed them with John Wayne Pharr, head of production at The Medium, and they primarily revolve around what they collectively aren’t willing to clean up. There will be no glitter, no blood, no fire and no animals over 100 pounds.
Early events, Martinez said, were total chaos.
“But it was a fun way to have a creative restriction that allowed you to explore new ideas and new thoughts that you wouldn’t normally have if you’re making a play or having a concert,” she said. “Sixty seconds is just enough to think about an idea but not trying to be heroic, you’re just having fun.”
The 60 artists will perform more or less back to back and the goal is — for them and for the audience — to simply find joy and energy from what they bring. Martinez hopes it will allow others to meet a huge swath of artists that they wouldn’t necessarily know are in the area otherwise. From the artist standpoint, they get a free pass to take some risks without putting their career on the line.
“No one is really going to hold you accountable for what happens in 60 seconds,” Martinez said. “If it’s bad, it doesn’t matter. It does not matter; it’s only 60 seconds. That’s the pleasure of it all.”
While adopting a no-pressure approach and eliminating those stakes sounds like a fair deal, Martinez finds herself having to remind the artists to take it down a notch.
“I email the artists at the beginning because they would write (very involved)
descriptions of what they would be doing,” she said. “You need to put less pressure on this,” she tells them. “No one’s going to win an Oscar. Just have fun.”
Applications for the artists involved were filled within about 10 days of opening, and there are some “wild” proposals. Audiences can expect a champion whistler, a dancer, lots of music and Conway Twitty drag. Others include a comedy skit with laundry and quite a few films. Among the participants are a number of youth, including quite a few high school kids.
Here are just a few of the descriptions from the artists who will appear on stage:
1. “I will run around the stage with a load of laundry and try not to drop any pieces.”
2. “I want to do a big contour drawing that lasts up to 60 seconds on a big sketch pad (or) drawing board.”
3. “A short video projection of stop-motion animation of cyanotypes that were used to make a quilt.”
4. “Some people know that I am a championship whistler. I will use my 60 seconds to try to demonstrate this to the audience.”
5. “Show the audience a small snippet of what is expected of seamstresses in fast fashion sweat shops.”
Martinez said a countdown clock will keep participants from going over their allotted minute, but with time to get people on and off stage, and stagehands helping them quickly unplug or plug in (amps) and the like, guests can expect to be entertained for about an hour and 20 minutes total.
Martinez can’t help but laugh a little as she remembers the shocking moments of years past, including bad twirling that was reliving someone’s majorette days, banjo playing, a “really weird clown,” and a comedic monologue about butts with a surprise ending.
Rest assured, there is no black pepper in any of the performances proposed for this year. And while the rule of no animals over 100 pounds exists mainly to keep livestock out of the running, Martinez isn’t ruling out an animal showand-tell in the future.
“I taught high school, and one of the courses I would teach was communication applications of speech, and the first speech we would do was show-and-tell, because everybody knows how to do it,” she said. “I would let them sneak in pets and inevitably I’ve had chicken (droppings) all over the classroom, dogs … animals are tricky. But I would love one day to figure out how to do an animal show-andtell.”
The possibility of another event like this one depends on the success of the first, Martinez said.
“It’s fun,” she said. “I love programming events like this that allow a lot of people to be involved in a kind of low stakes way and that can build community and energy so that they then return to your program.”
She hopes it will build rhythm of more people getting exposed to the arts and less people feeling self conscious about making it on stage.
“To be honest, the worse it is, the better, and the more free a person feels not giving a (hoot), the better,” she said. “Those are the ones everyone enjoys the most. You can see yourself in it. There’s just joy and laughter in what’s happening.”