Project Description:
poolboy00 is a devised immersive performance, installation, and party in which the realities of my life are churned into art, in real time, before a live audience. Each iteration of poolboy00 is developed through open rehearsals in which the public is invited to observe and create alongside poolboy (my online alter ego). No two performances of poolboy00 are ever the same. In THE RAT WIFE, the latest iteration, poolboy00 wrestles with Ibsenās existential and social questions through the lens of 21st century digital interiority. Where do secrets go now when so much of life is online performance? What does it mean to hold a secret when their performance means clout, social capital, TikTok fame. In Little Eyolf, the Rat Wife hunts out secrets, rats, and drowns them in the sea. In THE RAT WIFE online and in-person, audience and participant, authenticity and its performance, all melt into one gooey puddle, becoming indistinguishable. poolboy00 creates an environment where the digital is made physical: a Twitch stream in a performance space. THE RAT WIFE is an excavation of reality, secrets, and vulnerability. It is shitpost, party, fun, (hopefully) touching, scary and risky.
Bios:
Sam Mayer is a playwright and performance maker from Houston. Full length works include POOLBOY: I WANT TO LISTEN (Co-Lab Projects), THE CUCK (Intramural Theater), POOLBOY2: MAXIMUM CLOSURE (Crashbox), POOLBOY00 (UTNT), and CHET'S SUMMER VACATION (Kennedy Center; Intramural Theater; Rec Room Arts). His work has been developed with The Orchard Project, The Workshop Theater, The Mastheads, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. He is the recipient of the Chesley/Bumbalo Foundation Prize and a fellowship from the Michener Center for Writers. MFA: UT Austin.