Instagram (A Performance) is 40-minute text about collective self-regard, written and directed by Aaron Landsman, performed by a different actor each showing. This Prelude showing will be performed by April Matthis.

The piece is an extended riff on how caught up we are in each others’ image diaries, and in our own self-reflections; on how even the most cynical or circumspect of us get wrapped up in how we show our feeds to our followers. Performers receive an orientation shortly before they perform - the script includes both words to say and simple scores for movement and gesture. The piece is rendered as a litany of single photos, one per page.

The joy in this piece is watching accomplished performers respond to and embody text in the moment, in the complicated way we often respond to our friends’ feeds. It is also an invitation for audience members to create for themselves the images they are hearing aloud - an imaginative act akin to reading - and to think about the moments in their lives that escape our lenses, that may be embodied and rendered more strongly as memory alone.