THIRTY-THREE Begins

In the spirit of on-going gift-exchange, last fall I made the following offer to my friends:

For any gift larger than $ 33 (2 dang 3s, plus that's how old I am), I will perform ANYTHING you ask me to, for up to three minutes. Send me a piece of writing, a challenge, a piece of music, a dream, an object, a demand, a question, a drawing, an impossible task, and I will perform it, somehow, on January 1, 2010. For serious. Make it something awesome. Dare me. I will perform anything and everything asked of me as part of the performance, Thirty-Three.

Eighteen very generous friends responded, twelve of them giving me a performance challenge. I am now working, for the month of December, on creating a performance project from their generosity.

Thank you to those of you that helped, here is the performance challenge inspired by you:

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Family of 9 at the dinner table. And you're all 9 of em. And oh shucks Benoit just spilled the gay.

A monologue about birthdays: 13, 23, and 33

Father visits the aquarium on Mondays and the arcade on Thursdays

A monologue from Hideki Matsui's perspective about Game 6 of the World Series

A project involving wrestling

My birthday and my name

Something re: mou shu pork

Something in Outer Space, no Zombies allowed

"Moonpies" by Hank Schwemmer

A dream about pear trees

A bit from The Wind in the Willows as Mr. Toad

The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, and Abu Graib torture photos

A peacock at my parent's house

Something about cell phones

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These gifts (along with the dozens of other gifts offered to me through the project, Three Dang Dollars), have given me the opportunity to work on a number of creative projects that I otherwise would not have the time for.

THANK YOU very much, my THIRTY-THREE collaborators:

Jodi Alonzo
Alexandra Bassett
Ilana Brownstein
The Burn Ward Theatre Company
Hugh Craig
Deena Gerson
GerRee Hinshaw
Kate Houlihan
Deven MacNair
Nancy Mouton and Chester Forest
Dustin Puryear
Wanda, Doyle, and Kristi Reeves
Pat and Johnie Romero
Sean Kendall Schneyer
Hank Schwemmer
Don Slater
Heidi Taylor
Angela Turner
Jeff Williams


sincerely,

ROMERO