Fresh from premiering his new work at New York’s Under the Radar fest, the Wexner Center for the Arts presents Andrew Schneider’s Youarenowhere this weekend.
OBIE-winning artist Andrew Schneider is at the vanguard of artists using technology in the service of performance to investigate the connective tissue of perpetually switched-on modern life. The Village Voice calls his work “revelatory” and the New Yorker says it’s “jagged and miraculous.”
Writing for the New York Times, Alexis Soloski called Youarenowhere “A chaotic mix of personal revelation and relativity theory, enhanced by some alarming and splendid visual effects.”
In an interview with Scout MacEachron for Hyperallergic, Schneider said of this show “I want [the audience] to see themselves see. I want them to realize that they don’t know what’s going on. I want their sense of reality to be legitimately cracked.” MacEachron wrote, “For a man troubled by our de-humanizing relationship with technology, Schneider has succeeded at harnessing it to question, negotiate, and discover performance. Between all the noise and all the screens, YOUARENOWHERE demands you be present and connect with reality in that moment — all before overturning that moment in the name of realizations about selfhood.”
Threading intricate design and technology into performance, especially solo performance, often feels showy. At worst, it’s a parlor trick or a school assignment. Uniformly, word on Youarenowhere says the Schneider handily avoids falling into those traps of hollow virtuosity. Helen Shaw, for Time Out New York, calls it “A tour de force—both of acting and design. (In fact, it may be the first show that has truly, fully integrated the two.)”
In the New York Times profile linked above, Schneider said, “I cry every night during the show,” he said. “I tear up at the end. Every show. Because I can’t believe that it works.” Come out. Be dazzled.
Youarenowhere has performances at 8:00 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2:00 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and more info visit wexarts.org/performing-arts/andrew-schneider-youarenowhere.