Tuesday, November 27, 2012

A Feast of Fools

"A Feast of Fools" special edition T-shirt, 1996    
"A Feast of Fools" was developed for Bumbershoot, Seattle's Arts Festival, in 1996, in collaboration with Susy Schneider and Gene Gentry McMahon.  Susy developed her idea in response to a much more mundane one put forth by One Reel (Bumbershoot's producer).  Susy based her vision on the medieval festival Feast of Fools, an imitation of the Roman Saturnalia, "in which power, dignity and impunity is briefly conferred on those in a subordinate position." (-Wikipedia)  This inversion of power was played out doubly in our feast, in that a model of the set was created first, and 13 performing groups, selected by Susy, were invited to create work responding to the set.  Our bawdy theater played to delighted crowds on a rotating schedule throughout the festival. 


The Snoqualmie Room transformed into a medieval "cathedral"    

The Snoqualmie Room before (and after) "A Feast of Fools" 
Heaven and Paradise

The Temporal Plane, backdrops by Gene Gentry McMahon    



The Maw of Hell



Umo performs a musical number in the Maw of Hell


The Maw of Hell from the back of the Feast of Fools T-shirt