Artist Spotlight: Bruce Jones
Name: Bruce Jones
Pronouns: they/them/theirs
Hometown: Lorain, Ohio
Role in Mixily Presents: Writer of The Night of the Pink Supermoon (also played “Blaire”)
Current Pandemic Anthem (Musical, Culinary, Dealer’s Choice):
Dealer's Choice:
“Prayer for the Upliftment and Protection of Black People Globally"
& "Prayer for the Destruction of a White Supremacy" by Satarra (@iamsatarra)
Musical :
"Cry About it Later" by Katy Perry
Never thought I'd be saying this but it's true. I heard this song in a totally organic way, listening to music with my friends and I heard the lyric:
CRY ABOUT IT LATER
CRY ABOUT IT LATER
TONIGHT WE'RE HAVING FUN.
The universe gave me a less than subtle message. It's funny, but I felt an instant calm. It was like my inner voice saying: "Practice self-compassion! Stay in the moment and take a break from crying!" We don't need to deal with every single obstacle/solve every problem or be perfect every moment. Isn't that a relief?
If you would, would you tell us the story of your most triumphant moment as a theatre artist during this period known as 2020?
Looking back, I feel like I experienced multiple triumphs related to Supermoon, so I'm going to share them all and we can think of it all as one collective triumphant moment.
That being said, having Supermoon commissioned by Mixily was a true "He may not be there when you need Him, but He's always on time" gift. Ya know? Everything I was supposed to do this summer was significant to me, and it was all pretty much cancelled. I was supposed to go to Europe (my first time ever) to do a play I wrote, and it was cancelled. Which is truly one of my greatest dreams, so I was devastated and my depression was in full swing and I felt myself floundering.
On top of being severely depressed, I was feeling very anxious and scared. I never questioned whether my journey as an artist was over but if I'm being completely honest at that point in March-April I was still primarily in a space of anxiety and fear.
So getting the opportunity to write something that I wanted to write, that felt like such a reflection of art I would want to see, getting to work with people I love and respect, super gifted and talented artists, all of whom were likely available in fact because of the pandemic. That felt like its own significant personal triumph.
While it was a bright spot I desperately needed- any thinking or feeling person was collectively grieving Breonna Taylor, and then George Floyd. His murder happened around the same time as the performance, two or three days before. We are in the middle of such an important time in history but it's painful and traumatic as well. I can only speak for myself as Black person, but the overall trauma/sense of dread/anxiety/fear for my life feels amplified ten fold.
The fact that anything remotely good happened in my life in that period while all of this pain and grief was happening? It felt like its own little triumph. Okay. My biggest overall triumph to me was actually surrounding the circumstances of finishing the play before the deadline. Ready?
So, it's like two days before the deadline for my draft, and I had a plan to finish it that night, it was a Friday. I get to my then- boyfriend's place and my only intention for that evening was to finish the damn play, and then reward myself by having a blissful weekend. Probably five minutes after I take off my coat, and set down my things, he says he wants to break up. It felt like the ground had just dropped from under me, and there were multiple things firing at once. I had to finish this play and I had to navigate this somehow, but most importantly I HAD to finish this play.
After he tells me this, I literally say something like "I need to go outside for a few minutes" I get out of the building, and I manage to put my hand on a tree for support, and I leaned over to throw up (I thought) but out comes this wail. I just violently weep, I'm talking full on wailing, I mean I just let it rip. At one point I called Karl (tech producer of Supermoon) and still weeping, I say: "I just have to finish this play!"
It was like that moment in Midsommar, only I was crying and screaming by myself, and a tree. Which I don't even feel embarrassed to admit because shortly after, something came over me and I managed to collect myself, get myself inside, and I say “I know we have to deal with this but I have to finish this.” And I finished the play that evening! I sent it off, and when I looked at it the next day, I was actually happy with it! It felt like a miracle!
How has doing Zoom performance challenged you and/or made you grow as an artist?
I think the personal challenge for me, literally going from idea to the page, was that I had literally never heard of Zoom until recently. Like super recently, like not until the start of quarantine. Even then I’d only used it a couple of times for giving tarot readings, so my experience with it as a performance medium was super limited. So the challenge was understanding the medium of Zoom, because I had to consider if I could even write a play for Zoom. Or if I'd be able to envision it. So in that sense I was forced to grow!
Because I had to engage my imagination in a way I hadn't in awhile and it wasn't completely obvious to me what I was going to write yet. I decided before I even put pen to paper, that I would make some parameters for myself. So I set the play on a Zoom call, in real time, time limit and all. Which surprisingly wasn't a completely obvious choice because I believe that while the plays commissioned were all to be performed on Zoom, it wasn't a requirement that the stories be set on Zoom or in my case on a Zoom call.
I'd kind of started off with that in mind and, for a second I felt insecure that I'd made a mistake by putting restrictions on how I'd write it. But I went to sleep that night and kept my mind open. The next day I woke up and right there, the first little Android news highlight thingy I saw when I turned my phone on was an article "Modern-day witches are holding Zoom coven meetings...".
Long story short even though it was already long, I totally got the message about what I was supposed to write and I totally could have ignored that instinct! How often do artists ignore their instincts? I'm glad I didn't for once because I was ultimately super proud of what I wrote. I really listened to my instincts in every way in regards to the way I wrote Supermoon. So again, totally unexpected but major personal growth.
What’s your current thesis on livestream vs live Zoom performance vs pre-recorded video and the lines between theatre vs film vs ??? (ie: When’s the moment for you that it stops being theatre, if ever?)
Oh, this is such a great question!
I think the line between live Zoom performance vs pre-recorded video and the lines between theatre vs film are all created by approach? The element of live performance, and seeing the story, sort of play out in real time with no editing, with real breaths is (to me) what it sort of takes to make a performance closest to what we would see at the theatre.
Let's be a thousand percent honest, how many projects/creative teams do we think have clearly and thoroughly discussed the pros and cons of Zoom before deciding "okay let's just turn this into a Zoom production?" I do personally think it's possible to create that magic space on Zoom, but it's about approach, mindset, and knowing what the obstacles are.
I kept that in mind while I was writing and I think it really helped to elevate the play and Goddess willing, it wasn’t a hindrance to the actors. Depending on how you do it, no matter what, in my experience, there's a little filmmaking involved, especially if you're pre-recording a performance to stream. I mean, when you record a play on stage, we don't just call it a film, it's a play on film! It’s still theatre!
Any secret Zoom/tech-theatre workarounds or cheats you’d be willing to share with the internet?
When you perform with live video there's many things that could happen and go wonky at any time so I personally believe the best cheat. If you’re using Zoom or a video platform for sort of live streamed performance, is to perform the piece with as many of the tech elements as you can, and pre-record the performance.Yes, that’s the cheat!
Photo Credit: L Morgan Lee (BLUE Photography)
Promo Image, by Karl Saint Lucy
Three Dancing Maidens Statue at the Utenmeyer Fountain in Harlem
From Bruce: This is one of the photos I featured on the “The Night of The Pink Supermoon” pinterest board that I sent to everyone on the project.
Cast & Crew of The Night of the Pink Supermoon
Fan Art by Taylor Graves
Characters (L to R): Terra (Ayana Workman), Blaire (Bruce Jones), Stevie (Taylor Graves), Juliette (Ellie Gossage)
Bruce on the Beach During The Full Moon in Aquarius, August 2020
There can still be a live performance component, and even some pieces that are done live but almost all digital content we see is pre-recorded so I think if you submit yourself to it. It just makes it easier. For example: If you don't like how the recording turned out, you can arrange your rehearsal/performance schedule so that you have another chance to do it again. That’s another part of the cheat!
I was extremely lucky my technical producer Karl Saint Lucy is a full tech witch, who’s produced every kind of performance on basically all mediums where people are streaming performances.
We used a software program called OBS Virtual Camera which acts as a plug in and takes whatever is happening on the stream and plugs it in as a camera source! Honestly the best choice we made for our little play.
Plugs, Upcoming Shows, Website & Social Links, Here Please!:
I’m lucky to have a few irons on the fire, and I wrapped a big project in June/July (yup during quarantine!) I can’t say anything about it yet but we wrapped and it's the hardest thing I’ve done in my career so far. I'll be making an announcement about it soon, and in the meantime find me on social media! I’m also a tarot reader, come get your readings x
IG: @brucebattlespinkrobots / TW: @HighSeasBruce