New Haven Independent

Buses Commandeered For Art

by Thomas MacMillan | April 14, 2008 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Afternoon passengers boarding the D4 city bus were alarmed to find that the vehicle had been taken over by people in masks… armed with puppets.

As part of Exact Change, an event organized by the Arts Council, four city buses became mobile theaters on Sunday afternoon, showcasing poetry, drama, and music by New Haven artists. For an admission fee of $1.25 (bus fare), travelers were treated to improv theater games on Bus GF, bilingual music and poetry on Bus DF, and hip-hop flavored spoken word poetry on Bus PMF. Bus D4 became a performance venue for a theater group called Teatro del Sol y de la Luna, part of the New Haven Theater Company.

Click on the play arrow to watch a slide show of the event.

During the 20-minute journey from the Hamden Shopping Plaza to the New Haven Green, Teatro del Sol performed four tales drawn from Latin American folklore. With masks and puppets, and accompanied by a boombox blaring prerecorded narration, the group wove fantastical yarns involving mischief, comedy, and romance. In one, a shepherdess was seduced by a condor and borne away to live in his realm until she was rescued by a parrot. In another, a hungry man conned a widow out of a chicken lunch by convincing her that he could deliver the food to her dead husband, who was surely growing hungry in the afterlife.

Using a crowded city bus as a theater has its challenges for an actor. For one, the play is performed amidst the members of the audience. The stage shrank as the bus filled up, and the players in Teatro del Sol had to tell their stories while weaving around entering and exiting passengers. Also, there’s no backstage on a city bus. The performers did their costume and puppet changes on the fly, using the occasional empty seat for prop storage.

It’s also apparently difficult to prepare for a city bus performance. “We’ve been rehearsing in very tight spaces,” said T. Paul Lowry, the Creative Director of the New Haven Theater Company. He explained that the group had rehearsed in his living room, arranging chairs as though they were on a bus.

Passenger responses varied. Some were happily entertained, others turned their backs and did their best to ignore the strange masked people whirling and gesturing around them.

Frank Rodriguez (at right in top photo), who said he was on his way to church, seemed oblivious to the pageant unfolding around him. “I didn’t pay attention to it,” he said. “It wasn’t interesting.”

But Pat Ripley (pictured) was enthralled. “I love it,” she said. “I’m always looking for unique art experiences” Ripley drove down from Wallingford with her son, Seth Dara, to experience Exact Change. It was a double first for Dara: first time seeing theater and first time taking a public bus.

Last Stop: New Haven Green

Disembarking at the Green, the artists from the four city buses involved in the event convened at the corner of Church and Chapel for encore performances.

The group of spoken-word artists who got off Bus PMF to perform at the green was headed up by Influence. He’s the the assistant director of the Universal Arts Movement, a New Haven non-profit that uses poetry and arts to help youth to develop social skills and anger management.

Influence said that the passengers on his bus had been responsive. “It was received wonderfully,” he said. There had been a couple of young men plugged into iPods in the back of the bus, he said, but when they saw everyone applauding, they pulled out their earphones and paid attention. “I’m excited,” Influence said. “This was beautiful, for real.”

Included in Influence’s group were brothers Solomon and Harry Green, a.k.a. Novocaine and Renegade. The poets are students at New Haven’s Co-op Arts high school.

José Monteiro, the Arts Council’s Director of Community Cultural Development and the organizer of Exact Change, said that the event grew out of a bus performance that he organized last year, in which a seven-piece brass band played on the public bus to Lighthouse Point Park. “This has been a really fun process,” Monteiro said. He added that his goal is to bring theater and arts to people that otherwise would not be exposed to it. Next year he hopes to have mobile performances on even more New Haven city buses.

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Comments

Posted by: on whalley | April 14, 2008 8:40 AM

There should be some warning on the side of the bus that reads: "Not only will this bus stop every 10 feet and take twice as long to get downtown than walking but you will also be accosted by some uppity white people with paper bags on their heads."

I thought the goal was to get more people onto the ridiculously painful to ride buses not make them even more painful to ride.

Posted by: pedro | April 14, 2008 10:10 AM

Umm "on whalley", it was a pretty diverse group of people, if you bothered to look at the slideshow.
Where's your sense of fun??

Posted by: david streever | April 14, 2008 10:24 AM

Trust On Whalley to have a positive, meaningful response :)

I'm really glad this happened! thanks for putting on this performance.

Posted by: king james v | April 14, 2008 12:32 PM

Knowing on whalley won't be on the b or q bus gives me even more incentive to pay the $1.25 and take the bus into work more often. Thanks mr. sunshine :}

Posted by: robn | April 14, 2008 12:47 PM

OW,

Take it easy man. What would your reaction be if somebody started using the phrase "Uppity Black People" in their comments?

Posted by: nfjanette | April 14, 2008 1:24 PM

I can sympathize with On Whalley's last comment, but have a slightly different take on it. While the performance artists were probably as loud as the usual random group of obnoxious people that ride the bus yelling to each other and playing music/noise from their cell phones to entertain the "lucky" other riders, they probably smelled better than some passengers that haven't showered in weeks, if that recently.

Posted by: Bill Saunders | April 15, 2008 4:32 AM

I have to be say, I tend to agree more with OW's side of the argument in this particular instance.

This type of art performance takes advantage of a captive audience, with no other recourse but to put up with the shenanigans, though it may not interest them. I am not going to read into any of the photographs presented, but I certainly didn't see any reaction resembling a smile.

Street theatre in a public forum is one thing, but an organized attempt at 'spreading art' to the trapped, unsuspecting masses is another. Frankly, it's an arrogant position on the part of the Arts Council to foist this type of performance on the general ridership, though some people may enjoy it. For some reason I don't understand, bus riders seem to need art the most (judging from the bus stop/art park on Chapel Street -- but at least that effort is passive).

Believe me, I am in no way denigrating the potential quality of these performances, but, in my opinion, this type of spectacle seems a little predatory. At least they weren't asking for money.

Posted by: pati | April 15, 2008 9:30 AM

Oh the wheels on the bus go round and round... what a creative idea! I am sure the experience for most was at the least a surprised giggle. In these times we all need a reminder to smile. Sorry to see the negative comments, and I thought all the rigid folks lived here in Az.

Posted by: Bill Saunders | April 15, 2008 2:39 PM

I didn't look at the slideshow before I posted my last comment, and 'the kids' were certainly smiling.

Rather than using public mass transit as the stage, it might make more sense to integrate a program like this onto our school buses, where it might provide a more positive, lasting artistic impact.

Posted by: johnboy | April 15, 2008 10:59 PM

EXCUESE ME MR. SAUNDERS - i recall several times being in an enclosed space, most notably the 2001 mayoral debate, when you chose to display your art, and by art i mean your drag queen skit, where you had to be hauled off by the authorities.
i've also been quietly eating dinner, walking around downtown and minding my own business when miss messup had her little meltdowns.
It's a hell of a lot better than the crap i have to deal with when i'm going to work in the morning and have to listen to the kids on their way to school doing and saying things a 35 year old shouldn't be doing or saying. i bet people felt safe on the D route that day - a change of pace.
There was a time when you weren't so self serving, and actually brought some artistic reason to our town.
What other recourse is there when i've got ten girls arguing, everyone yelling into their cell phone, or the stench the often pops up on our busses. You dissapoint me Bill.
By the way, looks like more caucations than usual in the crowd.

Posted by: Influence | April 19, 2008 5:36 AM

All of the negitive comments are very funny to me. I have lived in New Haven most of my life, and this is one of the most positive things a city arts organization has done for the people in this city. Our kids are exposed to some many negitive outlets The Arts counsil and The Universal Arts Movement gave them another look at this that they normally are not exposed to because of either there lack of funds or lack of Knowledge of where these things are available to them. That does not only go for the youth but adults as well. QUESTION. How offten do you see people young or old at poetry venues or at a play or musical downtown .. Never. When I got off the bus I performed on, I was greeted by people of all age's asking how can I see you or what you do again. so this was very much need if anything just to give a very positive Balance... I hope you get my drift....

Posted by: Rip | April 25, 2008 6:43 PM

I made the trip in to purposefully take this artistic journey on the D. Also, for all you word lovers I got off on the many ways of looking at "Exact change" . Yeah, it WAS the price of the ticket, but it also DID "exact change" from the sound of the postings, one way or another. New Haven can be a great place..or a evil one. The youth in this city need an outlet that will motivate them to stay out of the situations that apparently occur on the buses, or on the corners or in the neighborhoods. Any way to positively manage emotion works. Put the energy into performance art and everyone walks away alive, and a little bit changed. And this is bad? What ever did happen to tolerance? Oh, wait, that is part of the problem.....

Buses Commandeered For Art

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