Guillermo’s performance began here. On Wednesday, October 30, 2019 he received a call from his favorite bookstore indicating that a book was waiting for him. That afternoon, he picked up the book and read it at the store.

Images above were taken months after the performance at the sites where events unfolded.

At Dusk We Walk Home Together: Performance for Guillermo

October 30 & November 3, 2019
Walla Walla, WA
Ideated & Choreographed with Sabina Rogers.

At Dusk We Walk Home Together, Performance for Guillermo was the first performance in a series of performances created with and for an audience of one—in this case a resident of Walla Walla, Washington named Guillermo. Woven into the fabric of his daily life, the performance rearranged elements of Guillermos’ days—his relationships, communities, and sites that are significant to him—culminating in an experience that falls somewhere between everyday life and performance.

I met Guillermo at a meeting for the Walla Walla Immigrant Rights Coalition, where we then worked together on numerous projects. And Sabina lived in his apartment building, directly one story below him. We visited Guillermo at his work. He taught us the most efficient way to crack an egg. In his work as a cook he regularly cracks 500 eggs a day. We asked him questions about his life and he asked us questions about ours.

We also talked to Guillermo’s friends. We asked them to participate in the performance as themselves. Neighbors and business owners along the performance route also joined in. Fifteen community members collaborated in the making of Guillermo’s performance; some were his friends, others are still strangers to him.

Each performance is documented as a book and copies are distributed to all the participants. Guillermo’s 16 page limited edition RISO printed book contains: an introduction to Guillermo and the performance-making process for him, a post-performance interview with Guillermo in dialog with philosopher Jenny Lemma-Bayne describing Guillermo’s experience of the performance, a performance script, drawings of significant objects & locations in each performance and a list of the community collaborators and performers.

At Dusk We Walk Home Together, Performance for Guillermo began with a prelude on Wednesday, October 30, 2019 when he received a call from his favorite bookstore indicating that a book was waiting for him. That afternoon, he picked up the book and read it at the store.

On Sunday, November 3, 2019 at 3:20pm he arrived at a bakery he frequents, early as usual. This initiated a two and a half hour encounter that unfolded at the bakery and culminated on his walk home, around 6pm. During this interval, Guillermo entered the Patisserie where the music changed in response to his arrival. He drank a coffee in his usual seat as performers on the street enacted pedestrian choreography that transformed into moments of synchronicity. When he left he walked down main street where store owners wrote Guillermo notes on their sandwich boards, he had a preplanned conversation, he was read too. And the doors of a church, a sanctuary that is very significant to him, were opened just for him. Inside musicians played music and Reverend Nathaniel Mahlberg delivered a sermon for him alone. After dusk, a parking lot–empty of the day's activity–was transformed into a constellation of lights.

At Dusk We Walk Home Together, Performance for Guillermo was created by Sabina and I in collaboration with Guillermo and David Cosby (book store owner) Tiffany Cain (bakery owner), Kathryn Padberg (dancer), Nhi Cao (performer), Reverend Nathaniel Mahlberg, Julie Jones (church choir director), Jackie Wood (pianist), Phil Lynch (guitar player), Maddy Gold (friend), Jose Cedeno (Tia’s neighbor and a soccer coach), Fields Ford (photographer), Lucy Evans Rippy (stage manager), and Joel Barton (support)

The framework of creating a performance for an audience of one prevents anyone beyond the solo audience member from experiencing the performance as a whole. For audiences like those of you reading this webpage these performances can exist only as fragments. The images you above were not taken during their performance but rather months afterward at the sites where events unfolded. All images by Tia Kramer.