SAPA's website describes it as "POP UP is an artistic treasure hunt. They gave us a map of the southside, but we spent 80% of our time on campus. The public is guided to a series of 5-15 site-specific performances via clues on a hand-painted map. Over the course of 3 days, performances pop-up on the street, in windows, parks, plazas and businesses throughout one neighborhood. These short apparitions of music, dance, theater and/or visual art are inspired by interviews with local residents and business owners about that neighborhood. By injecting a series of alternately playful, poetic or poignant performances in everyday spaces, the project is designed to shift how people perceive those places and to connect community members through art. The performances are sculpted through a live-composing sign language called Soundpainting."
Now that you've read that, do you have a clue what I did yesterday? Neither do I and I was there. It was very odd. Not sure what I was expecting but I'm pretty sure what I saw wasn't it. I was confused from the beginning. I should have known it was going to be odd. Touchstone and Bill George were there. They only do alternative theater. (BTW Bill George has gotten old. I guess that means I have too.)
We scanned our tickets and in a bit a MC-ish character came out and yapped on about the show and said it would start shortly. It was drizzling. Then a man came and asked if anybody was there for the art tour. Well no. That began a half hour ago on the greenway. Like sheep everyone followed him as he yammered on about the flame sculpture (In A State of Rejuvenescense, 1996, David Cerulli) in the the courtyard. Then he moved on to the frieze from Taylor Stadium. I'm still standing at the start. It wasn't until dancers came out wearing the colors of the sculpture that I thought, oh, it was a distraction. I slowly joined the group. They did a dance around the statue. And then ran up the steep hillside that used to be the Taylor Stadium bleachers.
These performers ran a lot. Many of them needed to get to the next stop before us and Change. I thought the person with the bike was smart. They were never breathless.
We moved forward and went up Taylor street, the climbed the stairs next to J. Stewart Johnson's Between Classes (1994). Then we climbed the hill behind the Linderman Library and went in. Our clue was to look for a colorful sun. Between the hills and the stairs I was one of the last to arrive. No less than two people asked me if I wanted to take the van. That will happen the day after Hell freezes over.
Everyone is going into the library and talking. Loud. I'm thinking WTF it's the weekend before finals. This place will be full (yes, even with the internet) and they didn't come to listen to your loud-ass mouths. Now Lehigh did put up a sign that if you wanted quite go here, here and here because there would be a performance between 2-4 in the Rotunda. But still people. It's a library. Have some respect. Shut you ducking mouths. The performers told stories. Most of the time all at the same time. Like my house when I was a kid at dinner. Occasionally a person was allowed to speak solo. There was a Moravian, a steel worker, an immigrant laborer, a ghost hunter, a student, a Christmas tree and something else. It was here I got the idea that the theme might be community. But I was not sure. I'm still very puzzled.
We walked thru the library, went downstairs and exited thru an emergency door. Downstairs is a gallery and the show looked interesting but I didn't look. I didn't want to leave the group. There was at least 50 people. We went down the hill toward Packer and found the woman (Okay, not sure, might have been a man or trans or non-binary. Just more to add to the confusion.) playing with the silks and fire. They was amazing. The two laborers were talking about the steel mill. It made no sense. I watched them--the best part of the whole thing. The reason I wonder about gender was there were many nipple slips and they barely had breasts. Would nipple slips be tolerated in a family show? None of the children noticed.
We crossed Packer Avenue (LU cop always blocking traffic.) and went thru to another courtyard and down Webster. There we had some comic relief.
Then it was down Morton and another alley. We crossed 4th and went back to Webster. (Why?) Then to the Greenway. Which I think the MC was calling Greenroad. There was a spool and signs and we all were attached to it walking down the Greenway. Again, not sure why. We did this for two blocks and then dropped the roap and headed to the steel ruins.
I stepped out of line and took the backside of Touchstone. I think I like the old mural better.
At the foundry we were met by Broughal students with swifts on sticks and ribbons. We gathered in the parking lot and manipulated the swifts with sticks. They were attached to a tulle canopy. They were making bird sounds.
The final stop was at ArtsQuest. The cast assembled and did a "choral" dance presentation. The MC was the conductor. The capes from the first "act" came back into play and they were dancing around by the flywheel sculpture. It was at least 20 minutes but we could sit down. Please don't ask me what it was about. About 75% of the time they were talking or singing over each other. The birds made another appearance.
You had a choice of walking back or taking the Lehigh shuttle. I took the shuttle. The teacher from Broughal was praising the students for the great job they did. We ran a half hour over. I bet the parents were getting antsy waiting for them to come back.
I got home, changed, and left for the traditional theatre. I saw The Drowsy Chaperone. My sister-in-law couldn't use her ticket. I never heard of the show. It's a musical inside of a comedy. I guess it was a day for the unusual.
Miles/Steps: The MC said 1.5 miles. My Fitbit was dead so I'll take their word for it.
Bathrooms: I-5 at Zoellner
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