I had been rolling around the idea of evolving 8 into a collaboration project since the Moonlight at the Treehouse party but (as mentioned in that post) it was a puzzle I couldn't seem to solve.
Then, at the beginning of this year, I heard something in an audio book that struck me. "Forge new relationships between unrelated things. Seeing novel connections is the cardinal feature for creativity and is essentially human." It wasn't meant to be a quote, but it did somehow reinforce this idea I loved around the beauty in finding new, creative ways to connect.
I started to shop ideas about the project to artist friends of mine. Would they be willing to let me pair them with someone to create an 8 minute piece on stage? How much time would they need to work with that person beforehand? What was exciting about it? What was scary? The answers I got varied to a degree that made it seem difficult to move forward, but I started looking for possible venues anyway. "If you build it, they will come." ? 8.8.2020 was on a Saturday and was the perfect date for this event.
Then the pandemic hit.
I went through phases of giving up on the show entirely, to thinking it might be easier to find a venue now 😜, to brainstorming on safe and creative ways to do the show outdoors, to considering the possibility of making it fully digital... But, without a clear idea of the course of the pandemic, it was hard to make a plan.
Then, on Wednesday, July 15th, I was looking at the calendar and realized it might be possible to pull together a digital show by August 8th if I made some decisions and acted on them immediately.
A couple of days later, I sent out an email to 88 performers to see if I could get any interest.
"I thought of you because I'm hoping to put together a collection of artists to do an unexpected collaboration with another artist. It will be a digital undertaking, and will require the delivery of an 8 minute video of the collaboration.
Here's my vision:
Once I have a list of interested artists, I'll look for combinations and make connections. Then each pair will have 2 weeks to create a video in whatever way they choose; committing to delivering an 8 minute piece to me by the end of two weeks. I'll stitch the footage together to create a show that I will release online.
This will be a challenge and an opportunity to bring different disciplines and people together to create something special, and to ultimately/hopefully break down barriers and bring a diverse audience together around art, which feels really relevant to me, especially right now."
I got 22 committed performers in 3 days, and we were on our way.
My friend, Michael, suggested that I create a live viewing party for the launch of the show. A livestream! A great idea. But, then I had to learn how to livestream.... and, actually, I didn't know how to do video editing to put the work together to present it as a show, and how was I going to introduce this show?
"When you want something; all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." - Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
Casey called to tell me he wasn't interested in the project but he wanted to say hi and catch up, and in the course of the conversation he mentioned he'd been livestreaming from home. He had great tips and was willing to give me a tutorial. Then, a bunch of friends jumped in to help me with in-the-moment testing and troubleshooting until I felt confident in running the stream. And, then, my dear friend (filmmaker/director), Ashley, called to catch up, and I realized that she would the perfect editor for the show. She agreed to help, and did incredible work putting the show together, convincing me to get on camera to introduce the show, and being a patient and professional collaborator (for me!) on the final product. It was such a delight to work with her, and I couldn't have asked for a better partner.
Collabor8 went live on 8.8.2020 at 8pm to YouTube, with live chat enabled to give the artists an interactive experience.
Anna and Audrey
Nik and Lenny
Michael and Trisha
Larry and Lorraine
Joan and Skorpio
Allison and Ruth
Sean and Kara
Ross and Gigi
Josh and CoiCoi
Julie and Maria
