"Time and Time Again" composed and performed by Lisa Fay and Jeff Glassman. Sungmisan Village Theatre, Seoul, South Korea, June 2009. No editing. (Evening length performance as part of month long residency) This is a 7-minute piece of a 75-minute production. This is an example of the work's ability to translate across cultures even with text. “Time and Time Again” The piece is constructed of about thirty miniscule “scenes” each of which is bounded by the gestural technique we invented and call “pivoting” framing each scene off in time and space from its neighboring scenes, comparable to a cinematic cut. “Pivot-montage” is our invention for approaching enharmonic change in music and the cut in film editing. A cascade of problems beset two people, seen through a series of pivot-bounded scenes, each lasting 2-20 seconds. Throughout this series, there are several sudden looping sequences, repeated verbatim. We have used this pivot technique – a performance technique and a composition technique – in many works, each exploring the freedom to re-frame time and place at any moment. The potential is still barely realized, much like a serial system for music composition. It is one way technical phenomena of perception familiarized by electronic media can be brought onto the live stage in the form of novel behavior in movement, gesture and voice.

Dongsoong Art Center, November 19th, 2015, 다름과같음Collaboration preview public performance at Dongsoong Art Center in Seoul, South Korea.
Lisa Fay and Jeff Glassman in collaboration with Yu Jin Gyu. Pictured: Yu Jin Gyu (left, disrobed) Jeff Glassman (right, wrapped). Excerpt from 30-minute work, part of a 105-minute combined concert of performance works.

EARLY DRAFT, Rehearsal, Oct. 2018: Action at a Distance (AaaD) NOTE: The thumbnail picture on the cover for this video is part of the score for AaaD. Each color is from a different play. Each column is assigned to one actor. Each border from one color to the next vertically is a pivot. Each rectangular 'tile' is a segment from a play, and is numbered 1,2, or 3 according to its position in the play. The spider web all around is for marking out the places a 'tile' is repeated, and by which actor. The smallest square tiles are approximately 1.5 minutes in performance time and the others are in proportion to that. Please keep in mind this clip is only the "first-pass" of Grottesco actors trying out the AaaD material, taken from the beginning 10% we worked on. It was done without proper sound recording, and before working on the vocal balance. What you see here are the actors learning the lines and the rough blocking, and getting used to the disorientation of having to "not see" one another while engaging with the imaginary others in their respective scenes. Two of the actors are in the same scene, and each of the two other actors are in different additional scenes. So, there are three scenes being represented in total. (Actors as pictured at the beginning of clip Left to Right: John Flax, Koppany Pusztai, Danielle Reddick, Tara Khozein). Their space is 10ft. x 10ft. There is only one 'pivot' moment so far, for two of the actors, roughly accomplished. The learning curve is very high. There is a bit of 'uncanny coordination' going on, but no attempt yet at 'hybrid dialogue'. The actor's are working on becoming capable of 'manifesting absence'. There is no 'contra-diction' called for yet.

Above: THE ACTORS ARE SPEAKING ALL THE WORDS YOU HEAR, LIVE AND VISIBLE, AS THEY ARE ACTING. THEY ACT OUT THE GESTURES OF A SECOND DIALOGUE SILENTLY, SIMULTANEOUSLY, AS THEY SPEAK. Left to Right in thumbnail: Yael Barretta, Austin McCann, at Prop Thtr, Chicago

HUNG was composed by Lisa Fay and performed by Jeff Glassman. The entire piece is scored for timings between speech and left-right movement, and runs about 12 minutes.