12 Hour Play

12 Hour Play is a non-stop, durational performance series that attempts to challenge standard experiences of time to illuminate the potential inside any given moment.  Real-time composition of dance and sound unfolds as an alchemical experiment of players and audience through the weathering of time. The performers are given the constraint to remain present for the duration, 6pm-6am, to challenge themselves through physical exhaustion, sleep deprivation and extended mental focus, in order to push the environment into new territories of creative vision.  The audience may observe the event at any point during the twelve hours, and stay for as long as they like. This flexibility mirrors the performers' process of improvised collaboration. Both performers and audience create their own experience of time and relations between bodies, space and sound.

 12 Hour Play is produced by Jason Anderson and Beth Graczyk.  Together they produced three 12 Hour Play events in 2005 & 2006. In 2012, the dance/sound company Salt Horse, a collaborative company of four artists: Jason Anderson, Angelina Baldoz, Corrie Befort and Beth Graczyk utilized the format to research the effect of duration and exhaustion on time-based improvisational scores that focus on the dynamics of a group - their inherent flux and the infinite potential. Photos featured are from the Salt Horse produced event. 

See a short video excerpt of the 2006 12 Hour Play performance: HERE 

Photo Credit: Tim Summers