Work
albatross
Maker Candle House · Work date 2020-03 · Medium telephone + other · Role work
Description
“words are hard to come by in the desert.” Leona is working on a crossword puzzle. It is not going terribly well. Vulnerable, isolated, and tender. One act, about forty-five minutes, phone and text. Available in the USA, Canada and internationally. Part of Candle House’s help! — an assemblage of remote, standalone, one-act encounters for a solo participant, highly interactive, some emotionally or psychologically intense, 18+.
Source. https://candlehouse.org
The company is styled Candle House. It was formerly Candle House Collective, and that name still appears in its email address and in scholarship published before the change; this archive uses Candle House throughout.
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 headphonesnoP
A phone call, with text messages alongside.
- Participants move through space as part of the worknoI
The participant takes the call where they are.
- Audio technology is necessaryyesP
Phone and text are the whole delivery.
- Site-, situation- or language-specificSituationP
“Words are hard to come by in the desert” — the encounter names the circumstance it needs, though not a place.
- Engages with the history of a sitenoI
No documented past of a real place.
- Created for an urban environmentnoI
No urban dependence.
- Created as an artwork other than theaternoP
Presented by a theater company as an encounter.
- Intended to be understood as theateryesP
Candle House frames help! as one-act encounters, and describes its practice as theater.
- Accidental real-world sights and sounds are importantunknown?
Not addressed in the company’s copy.
Did you experience this? Tell us - Spectator must participateyesP
Described as highly interactive; Leona’s crossword needs the participant.
- Has live performers other than the participantsyesP
A live performer takes the call. Candle House works are performed, not recorded.
- Involves game playsometimesI
A crossword is worked on during the call, which is a puzzle with a solution state, but no win condition is described.
- Uses props other than the listening deviceunknown?
Whether the participant handles anything is not established.
Did you experience this? Tell us
2 of thirteen are still unknown for this work. If you experienced it, you can settle them in a minute.