100
RICHARD KOSTELANETZ
must assume the responsibility for that moment, for those actions
that
happen at that particular time.
I don't find theater that different from painting, and it's not
that I think of painting as theater or vice versa. I tend to think
ef
working as a kind of involvement with materials, as well as a rather
focused interest which changes.
INTERVIEWER:
How did you become the author of your own theater
pieces?
RAUSCHENBERG:
That skating piece,
Pelican
[1963], was my first piece.
The more I was around Merce's group and that kind of activity, I
realized that painting didn't put me on the spot as much, or not in
the same way, so at a certain point I had to do it.
In some places, like London where [in 1964] the group was held
over for six to eight weeks, and we did the
piece
of Merce's called
Story
three or four times a week, well then it was very difficult to
do a completely different thing every night. A couple of times we
were in such sterile situations that Alex Hay, my assistant, and I
would actually have to be part of the set. The first time it happened
was in Dartington, that school in Devon. The place was inhabited by
a very familiar look - that Black Mountain beatnik kind of look about
everybody; but they occupied the most fantastic and beautiful old
English building, all of whose shrubs were trimmed. There was nothing
rural or rustic or unfinished about
it.
For the first time, there was
absolutely nothing to use; you can't make it every time. There was a
track at the very back of the stage that had lights in it; so the dancers
couldn't use that space. About an hour before the performance, I
asked Alex whether he had any shirts that needed ironing, which is a
nice question to ask Alex because he always did and he always ironed
his own shirts. So, we got two ironing boards, and we put them up
over these blue lights that were back there. When the curtain opened,
there were the dancers and these two people ironing shirts. It must
have looked quite beautiful, but we can't be sure absolutely. But from
what I could feel about the way it looked and the lights coming up
through the shirts, it was like a live passive set, like live decor.
INTERVIEWER :
Would you do it again?
RAUSCHENBERG:
I won't do that. You see, there is little difference
between the action of paint and the action of people, except that paint
is a nuisance because it keeps drying and st!tting.
INTERVIEWER:
The most frequently heard criticism of
Map Room Two
[1965] is that it was too slow.
RAUSCHENBERG:
I don't mind that. I don't mind something being boring,
because there are certain activities that can be interesting
if
they are
