Perpich News

Students Present “Sketches & Observations” in the Neo-Futurist Tradition

October 18, 2023

Perpich Arts High School presented “Sketches & Observations” on October 16 and October 17, 2023. In the Neo-Futurist tradition, the sketches & observations from Feiffer’s People by Jules Feiffer and The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe were presented in random order. Audience members shouted out titles which were then performed by the students. The sketches & observations were selected by the actors themselves, with various motives. Some honored their favorites. Other actors selected titles as a response to historical, cultural, and political viewpoints or a particular time, mood, or event. Student actors represented several arts areas: Theater, Visual Arts, Musical Theater, Literary Arts, and Media Arts.

“Considering the vignettes used for ‘Sketches and Observations’ were from plays produced in 1968 and 1986, it’s amazing how relevant they are in the world today,” said Tory Peterson, Theater Instructor. “I, like Bertolt Brecht, want to make audiences think and do not want audiences ‘to hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom’.”

Feiffer’s People by Jules Feiffer (originally produced in 1968) & The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe (originally produced in 1986), features familiar collections of bright, energetic, hopeful people who greet the world with a smile, only to discover that the world not only doesn’t know they exist, but doesn’t care in the least. These sketches and observations are an exorcism and a party. They explore contemporary American cultural identity, while, at the same time, revisiting and reexamining America’s historical and cultural past.

“Sketches & Observations” Performers: