Work
Baby Jessica's Well-Made Play (2021)
Maker WalkUpArts · Work date 2021-03-04 · Medium telephone · Role work
Description
Baby Jessica's Well-Made Play is a five-act phone adventure to the bottom of a well and out again. Inspired by "America's Baby" herself, this highly interactive, intimate, and conversational phone performance for one uses the true story as an excuse to discuss fear, hope, imagination, culture, and memory. Over the course of an audio-recording, live performances, and a secret fifth act that's months in the future, audience members will discover what waits for them in the dark. Baby Jessica's Well-Made Play will be performed for one audience member at a time, from the comfort of their own homes. To be first to know when tickets go on sale, sign up for our email list!
Source. No published description found.
Anatomy
Thirteen criteria after Lauren R. Beck. Each carries a source grade: M maker-confirmed, P published, F first-hand, I inferred by the compiler, ? not yet established. Definitions are on the anatomy page.
- Participants listen through headphonesnoI
A phone performance with no headphone requirement stated.
- Participants move through space as part of the worknoI
Performed for audience members 'from the comfort of their own homes' with no instruction to relocate.
- Audio technology is necessaryyesP
Described as a five-act phone performance built from audio recording and live calls.
- Site-, situation- or language-specificnoI
Home is named as convenience, not requirement; no site, situation, or language is required.
- Engages with the history of a siteunknown?
The listing says it uses a 'true story' (a documented past event) but names no specific real place, so the site half is unestablished.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Created for an urban environmentnoI
Nothing in the work presupposes urban surroundings.
- Created as an artwork other than theaternoI
Titled and framed as a 'Well-Made Play' in five acts, a theatrical framing with no other discipline named.
- Intended to be understood as theateryesP
Listing uses 'play', 'five-act', 'performance', 'audience member' and 'tickets'.
- Accidental real-world sights and sounds are importantunknown?
Description says nothing about the participant's surroundings feeding the work.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Spectator must participateyesP
Described as 'highly interactive... and conversational' for one audience member at a time.
- Has live performers other than the participantssometimesP
Listing explicitly combines 'an audio-recording, live performances, and a secret fifth act', so liveness varies across the work.
- Involves game playnoI
A five-act narrative with no rules, objective, or resolution state.
- Uses props other than the listening deviceunknown?
A 'secret fifth act months in the future' could involve materials, but nothing physical is specified.
Did you experience this? Tell us
3 of thirteen are still unknown for this work. If you experienced it, you can settle them in a minute.