Source Festival Mash-Up reviewed by City Paper

Visual artist Kate McGraw and playwright Allyson Currin performing "Combustion."
Image: C. Stanley Photography

The City Paper reviewed the first Source Festival Mash-Up night on Tuesday and gave high props to my artist pal Kate McGraw. If you're around this weekend, go see it! Compelling work that will really make you think and it's super fun to see how creativity mashes together even when they're coming at it from different angles.

The clearest mash-up of the evening is the final piece, “Combustion” by playwright Allyson Currin, visual artist Kate McGraw and musician Scott Burgess. During intermission, the floor is covered with a drop cloth and white paper, while a large canvas leans against the back wall. An electric guitar, music stand and amp are set up on the left side of the stage and another music stand and arm chair are on the right. When the performers arrive on stage, Burgess picks up the guitar, McGraw grabs a black marker and walks toward the canvas, and Currin sits in the chair and removes her shoes and socks before lining them up evenly on the side of the chair. She launches into a monologue about a day in her life and her clipped delivery is matched by McGraw tracing a large rectangle on the canvas and Burgess strumming chords to reflect the changes in her day. When Currin describes her inability to fall asleep and her frustration with sheep-counting, McGraw strikes the canvas and Burgess plays a distorted note that brings the focus back to Currin. This repeats until the boxes drawn on the canvas get so small that they must be, in some way, “broken.” McGraw does this by pouring red paint across the floor and paints the paper using her entire body, then grabbing Currin and encouraging her to do the same thing. In doing this, she breaks out of her shell and is finally able to sleep after expending creative energy. Each performer has a very specific action in this performance but the interaction between them is what makes the mash-up work well. Combining concepts that don’t appear to complement each other is what makes this production more captivating than the others that precede it.

The Source Festival 2009 Mash-Ups!

Mash-ups are creative blind dates where artists mesh disciplines to create inventive performance pieces. Combinations include: a dancer, a filmmaker and a writer; a hip hop musician and a theatre director; a composer, a playwright and a visual artist.

Performances are Tuesday, June 30 through Sunday, July 5 at Source (1835 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20001). Full details at sourcedc.org/sourcefestival.