Synesthesia: A Piece of Eight
by on May 29, 2012
Conceived by Ashlin Halfnight and Melanie Sylvan at New York’s Electric Pear Productions, Synesthesia can easily be classified in the “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” Department. The performance piece (actually, eight performance pieces in one) is a multi-medium event with such a clever concept that one would suspect the outcome would pale compared to the idea, but in its west coast premiere now playing at the Bootleg, Synesthesia is as fun, quirky and inventive as its notion.
Five months ago, an aerial artist and dancer named Ruby Karen sat before a bowl of fortune cookies, and arbitrarily plucked one out and cracked it open. Ms. Karen would now have two weeks to generate an aerial performance piece based simply on the fortune in her hand – whatever the fortune inspired was fine as long as it remained within her specialized form of art.
