About

SIN
Prologue
Envy
Avarice
Lust
Sloth
Anger
Gluttony
Pride

Near the end of 1987, the seven performers known as Watchface – Chazz Dean, Kurt Fulton, Kim X Knowlton, Melanie Monios, Iris Rose, James Siena, and Maggie Siena – looked back on what would be their most prolific year. In diverse combinations and led by various directors, the group had created twelve original pieces. They also had participated in two presentations of their work in repertory, as part of the Fringe Festival in Los Angeles and in their own Watchface: The Spring ’87 Collection at La MaMa. Both of these showcases brought about an increased creative output of new works and revivals. Among the many shows presented, House of Jahnke, one of Watchface’s earliest efforts, was restaged for the La MaMa engagement, and Septaphonic evolved from the show Stereotype (which had earlier morphed into the four-person Stereotype in Quad) to include all seven members. This performance, consisting of three short pieces, was their first attempt at utilizing all seven of the individuals Iris first assembled four years earlier for House of Jahnke.

Upon returning to New York from the Fringe Festival at the end of September, the group
decided that a significant production featuring all seven Watchface members was long
overdue. Even though the group’s identity as a seven-member performance collective was
conceived and announced over a year before, and publicly launched with Watchface’s
Greatest Hits, among their fans and followers there was still some confusion. With the
variable cast groupings and directors doing work under their new moniker, it was
challenging to grasp what and who the group actually was. This fact, along with
encouragement from the artistic directors of several spaces where the group had performed,
influenced the decision to mount a production with all seven players.

At the first planning meeting, it was quickly decided that this new work would be based on
the seven deadly sins. Other possibilities were discarded as the concept of each member
staging a different sin engaged their collective imagination. The deadly sins had been
represented in art and literature for centuries, and the idea of the group translating them
using their contemporary and particular points of view was stimulating and inspiring. Maggie
volunteered to take on the task of coordinating the project, which the group realized was
necessary in keeping control of this potentially unwieldy venture of seven productions
helmed by seven different directors.

After a short break to research the history of the seven sins plus a period of individual
gestation – as each member considered which sin they wanted to stage, how to stage it,
and with which other members – a second meeting was scheduled to flesh out the
performance. The selection of who would present what sin was dealt with very
democratically. The potential directors wrote their top two choices onto ballots that were
then revealed simultaneously. After minimal discussion, each member was assigned either
their first or second choice with one exception. The only unwanted sin was gluttony, which
Maggie, in her arbitrative role as project director, graciously accepted. The pairing of
directors and sins was Chazz with lust, Iris with sloth, James with anger, Kim with envy, Kurt
with pride, Maggie with gluttony, and Melanie with avarice. Casting was the other point of
possible contention, but it was resolved easily. Kurt first expressed his wish to use all seven
performers to complete his vision of competing tribes for Pride. To ensure that all would be
involved equally, it was agreed that in addition to Pride, each member could participate in
only two other pieces, and each sin could have a maximum cast of three. Again ballots
were submitted. Without any further necessity for compromise, the casts were set as
requested. Each member was cast in three sins, including Pride (except for Iris, who was in
only two), with all the directors deciding to perform in their own work. assignment of sins

There were also lengthy discussions about the subject of sin in general, as well as
presentations of research into early concepts of sin and the seven deadly sins specifically.
It was revealed that the seven deadly sins were originally from a code of behavior
developed by early Christian monks and never actually mentioned in the Bible. Through
these talks, some unanimity was reached: these faults are everyday behavior, but it is the
extreme that turns them into sins. As James is quoted in a preview article in Paper, “You
have to work hard to sin. That’s one thing we all learned.”

The first progress report was compiled by Maggie at the start of December. progress report
It included each director’s concept along with projections of audio, costume, and setting
requirements. In some cases, rehearsals had already begun or were about to begin in
earnest as performance commitments were quickly secured. Dixon Place and La MaMa
were both interested in the production. It was determined that a serialized version would be
presented at Dixon Place in February and March of 1988. Watchface would offer a “sin a
week” for seven weeks featuring the result of each member’s work. Dixon Place flyer The
performance in its entirety would be presented at La MaMa in April. La MaMa poster As an
unexpected bonus, an opportunity to take the show to Los Angeles’ Museum of
Contemporary Art (MOCA) presented itself. Involved in an exchange of performance work
between the two coasts through the National Performance Network, David White, Artistic
Director of Dance Theater Workshop, and Elizabeth Dunn, a producer at La MaMa, suggested
Sin to MOCA curator Julie Lazar. Performance dates were established for May. MOCA mailer

In the excerpt below from Watchface’s first press release for The Seven Deadly Sins (the title
before it was shortened to Sin), the work was described in a broad manner, as it became
clear early in the creative process that the presentations of the sins would be quite diverse.
Ultimately the depictions of the sins ranged from theatrically staged short plays to abstract
sequences densely layered with text and movement created from multiple Watchface
techniques.

The Seven Deadly Sins explores the personal and societal effect of both the nature and
the notion of “sin.” Not surprisingly, the seven members of Watchface have different
views on the subject. This is reflected in the different approaches taken in presenting
each sin. An emphasis on specific design elements serve to unify the production. An
overall point of view is expressed in a jointly created introduction and conclusion.

Early on in the planning stage, it was suggested that the seven representations of the deadly
sins be bookended by unifying pieces with the complete cast participating. As project
director, Maggie conceived and directed these sections, entitled Introduction and
Conclusion.

Conclusion, however, was never performed during the La MaMa engagement. A few weeks
after the succession of sins at Dixon Place, it was time to assemble the seven works into a
single performance. The Dixon Place series acted as a preview, giving the directors a
chance to work out any issues before the run at La MaMa. This left the order of sins to be
decided and Introduction and Conclusion added for the first time, as well as decisions to be
made concerning all the technical aspects, such as lighting, sound, and set changes.

After the first evenings of technical rehearsals, Maggie, with input from other cast members and guests who attended, decided changes needed to be made. At nearly two hours, not including intermission, and with a 10 PM start time, the consensus was that it was too long and ended too late. There were also difficult transitions between the sins in the second act. After a hastily assembled group meeting before the final dress rehearsal, the order of sins was altered and Conclusion was eliminated. Introduction was retitled Prologue. La MaMa program The final order became:

Prologue
Envy
Avarice
Lust
Sloth
Intermission
Anger
Gluttony
Pride

Prologue

As the lighting slowly revealed all seven performers, dressed in neutral white tops and dark
pants or skirts and evenly spaced across the stage, Maggie counted up from one to seven.
This established the pace for the introductory section, comprised of rhythmic chants and
matching gestures representing the deadly sins from their most repressed to their most
extreme. For anger, the initial line was “It’s okay, I’ll buy another one,” which evolved to
”I’d like to rip his head off and stuff it up his ass!” In various combinations, these brief,
rhythmic vignettes, so successful in the popular Stereotype and its performance offspring,
grew from whispered wishes to bursts of fury. To close, each member exited one at a time
after performing their assigned sin’s most fervent manifestation.

Envy
By Kim X Knowlton with Kurt Fulton and James Siena

The last left on stage in the Prologue, Kurt was also the first to enter for Kim’s presentation of
the initial sin. After a brief movement sequence, he was joined by James, who, like Kurt, was
wearing a suit and tie. They began an athletic progression of complex moves, some in
unison and some requiring the support or assistance of the other. The tension was not only in
the choreography but also in the text as the two men bragged about their accomplishments,
one-upping each other and commenting disdainfully about the successes of their rivals. As
the men exited, Kim entered in a dressing gown and flopped into the only set piece, a large
overstuffed easy chair on the edge of the stage. She then began a bitter tirade against a
former lover, his present mistress, and her own current status: “It’s not so bad to be alone. It’s
relaxing, cleansing. Until you’re alone.” Her jealous rants were reinforced by aggressive
and assertive gestures. When the men reentered, their attacks were now aimed directly at
each other. They ended meekly as their vital opening competition degenerated into painful
isolation. Kim’s portion was autobiographical to some extent, she recalls, “I knew about
being envious of other girls and wasting time semi-crazily about that.”

Avarice
By Melanie Monios

Melanie presented her sin as a two-character play with only one actual character. Melanie
played Darcie, a woman whose obsession with collecting handbags led to her downfall. The
second character, a salesgirl at a department store handbag counter referred to only as
“Miss,” was not portrayed by an actor. Darcie spoke to her while facing the audience, and
the salesgirl’s lines were surmised from Darcie’s replies and reactions. The balance of
Darcie’s text was also directed to the audience but as an inner monologue. The root of
Darcie’s compulsion is intimated in her first lines:

When I was 12 years old, my handsome godfather presented me with my first handbag.
He leaned down, kissed me on the forehead and said “Always remember, Darcie – the
essence of a woman is reflected by her handbag. With this purse, you are a beautiful
little lady.”

However, the perfect handbag did not secure the desired results. Darcie was not invited to
her colleagues’ weekly lunch, she did not have a successful first date, and a new briefcase
with a shoulder strap did not impress her boss or secure her job. Only the acquisition of yet
another handbag produced the desired effect – the euphoria of potential happiness – even
when purchasing evolved into theft. With each acquisition, Melanie added a handbag from
the front edge of the stage to a hook on the backdrop, until it was completely filled by her
collection. handbag diagram When Darcie was finally apprehended stealing one more bag,
she admitted to having 499 handbags and nothing to put in them. “I’m broke, and I can’t
stop now!” Joan Acocella of the Village Voice observed in her review that Avarice was
“straight social satire, beautifully acted by Monios.”

Lust
By Chazz Dean with Kurt Fulton and Maggie Siena

The three performers, dressed in conservative Victorian clothing, began by moving in
harmony to the dramatic overture of the opera Boris Godunov against a backdrop of black
and blue striped satin. Chazz organized his sin into five sections, with “Dreams” the opening
segment. The three recalled actual dreams in a tone and intention to highlight any and all
sexual innuendo they might contain. With a quick change of music, Maggie and Kurt
performed a strange and evocative version of an 18th century quadrille as Chazz defined
various muscle groups by their Latin names, then implied their potential sexual purpose.
Chazz named this “Anatomical Flirtation.”

In “Media,” the trio recited found text from advertising that utilized sexual imagery, mixed
with the slogans from actual sex-related products, while their interactive movements
reflected the words’ references to sexual acts. A portion of the suggestive script:

Maggie:
Moist and rich Tunnel of Fudge cake.

Chazz:
Both electronic and Greek action features.

Kurt:
Chocolate lover? Join the club.

Maggie:
Mildly desensitizing lubricant.

Kurt:
AT&T helps you make a smooth move.

Chazz:
Slick and slippery.

Kurt:
The pump endorsed by the King.

Maggie:
A little extra love, Pounce Treats for cats.

Kurt:
The tool does a man’s job.

Chazz:
Where’s the beef?

Having built to the fourth section, “Perversion,” the three began by speaking in unison of a
hunger for extreme and “unnatural” longings, accompanied by a constant, pulsing beat.
They stood stiffly in place, but as the tempo quickened and intensified, their bodies writhed
with suppressed excitement. “Perversion” script Kurt recalls the formidable concentration it
took to articulate the tongue twisting dialogue and stay in sync with the other two
performers, while physically communicating these repressed desires. The aftermath of this
expression of inordinate craving for the pleasures of the flesh was the final part,
“Repentance.” To a recording of Jim Nabors’ rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,”
the lusty sinners crumpled into a guilt-ridden, self-loathing mass.

Sloth
By Iris Rose with Chazz Dean and Melanie Monios

For her Sloth, Iris wrote a play of addiction to inactivity. It told the tale of Wendy Parker, a
solitary woman, and her love affair with her television. Through a series of short scenes and
blackouts, performed to a continuous, complex soundtrack of television audio clips –
ranging from Wheel of Fortune to Miami Vice – Wendy’s life is revealed. She eats, sleeps,
and even masturbates on the couch in front of her TV. Perfectly content to sit at home and
watch soaps and reruns, her mundane routine is interrupted by visits from, first, a curious
colleague, then, her concerned brother and impatient sister-in-law, all encouraging her to
go back to work. Ultimately, Wendy does return to her “not the worst” job out of necessity,
but longs for her solitary days of staying at home and watching TV. While the brief scenes
stressed Wendy’s inactivity, during the short blackouts Iris moved quickly to complete the
often challenging changes of costumes and props for the next setting. Many of the
scenarios received laughter of recognition from the audiences. As Dan Sullivan said in his
review from The Los Angeles Times, “It’s healthy to laugh at her, and we do, not without
memories of certain lost weekends of our own.”

Iris admits to her own extensive research into sloth. She chose sloth as her deadly sin because it was the one against which she had fought the hardest. She considered herself a very lazy person at points in her life, having spent much of her childhood, teen years, and early 20’s watching television for hours on end – hours that she felt could have been spent doing something more productive. For this reason, her way of focusing on sloth was through television.

Iris found out she was pregnant (with husband James Siena) during Sin’s rehearsal period,
and felt guilty eating the props that the story dictated, including a Sara Lee cake directly out of its aluminum pan. The funniest and most appropriate food prop was suggested by Chazz – Goober Grape eaten from the jar with a breadstick. To Iris it seemed the height of sloth, when you are too lazy to even make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Anger
By James Siena with Kim X Knowlton

Kim and James appeared all in white in front of a blood red backdrop. Dialogue soon
established them as a married couple of many years and set them in a convenience store of
which they were the proprietors. A long table, representing the store counter, was hung with
red signs with white lettering that read “No Loitering” and “Beware of Dog.” The couple,
Frank and Peg, embodied James’ desire to focus on the triggers that induced anger and its
repetitive nature in the context of an intimate relationship. The store setting also allowed for
exploration of the situational aspects of anger reflecting external influences. The characters
were inspired by an actual Polish couple that James had encountered who operated a store
in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and seemed always to be angry. Frank and Peg’s story was not told
in real time, but flowed from situation to situation, using Watchface techniques combined
with traditional acting. The husband and wife railed against each other about everything
from the humid weather and a missing order of mineral water to dusty Twinkie packages.
Intricate movement patterns were layered onto the acerbic back and forth, as their fury
escalated through five scenes/situations. After a final outburst about how the constant
meddling of government, corporations, and banks was forcing him to close the store, Frank
grabbed his chest, leapt in the air, and collapsed onto the floor, as Peg screamed, “Get
ahold of yourself. They are watching you! Grow up! Frank!!”

Gluttony
By Maggie Siena

As Melanie did in Avarice, Maggie also decided to stage her sin as a solo effort. Coming
from a theatrical background, she visualized telling her story of gluttony as a character
study, acted rather than depicted through choreography and the group’s various movement
techniques. She wrote a story of one woman’s growing obsession with food because of her
inability to form and maintain satisfying relationships, finding fulfillment only in eating.
Maggie as Donna Marie started as a member of the clean plate club, but daddy’s little
princess became daddy’s pork pie and too heavy to sit on his lap. She was ridiculed and
teased by her classmates – “Donna bon-bonna!” Having no friends at school, she made
friends of peanut butter, wienies, chips, and Oreos. Her obsession became worship, but she
remained unsatisfied. An affecting sequence was Donna Marie’s ode to eating; she lit
candles and roasted marshmallows at her alter of consumption as she recited her prayer.
Holding up the flaming marshmallows, she chanted, “Eat, taste, chew, drool.” prayer text
Gradually the story revealed itself to be a retelling of “Hansel and Gretel,” but from a very
different point of view, that of the witch, Donna Marie. “I call that original,” stated Dan
Sullivan of The Los Angeles Times. Maggie was attracted to the idea of explaining the story
from the witch’s vantage point to understand gluttony differently – a hunger that couldn’t be
satisfied. The witch had become so lost in her food addiction that her only way of relating to
her two lost captives was to eat them. Donna Marie’s story ended with the plea:

I don’t want to hurt you. I’m just so lonely. I just need a little taste, just a little nibble.
Just the smell while you’re cooking, just to feel something again. Just to taste a little
company again.

Pride
By Kurt Fulton with Chazz Dean, Kim X Knowlton, Melanie Monios, Iris Rose, James Siena, and
Maggie Siena

Kurt was drawn to the contrasting characteristics of pride as sin, elusive and subtle yet
ubiquitous and invasive. Historically pride was called the sin from which all others arise, the
excessive belief in one’s own abilities that interferes with the individual’s recognition of the
grace of God. Contemporary pride is most often portrayed as a positive attribute – pride of
self, family, country and pride in deeds, talents, and triumphs. Heightened pride in
individuals and groups, however, gives rise to notions of superiority and exclusivity.
Pride was constructed to depict and expose the accepted social institutions in which its
destructive nature surfaces, resulting in varying degrees of intolerance and fanaticism.
To depict a specific and separate community with its implied nationalism, Kurt had the cast
dress in western gear and square dance costumes against a backdrop of the American flag
bordered by quilting fabric. found photo

In direct contrast to the preceding Gluttony, Kurt, with his past experiences as a professional
dancer, stressed movement and utilized all of the Watchface techniques in creating Pride’s
choreography and dialogue. Kurt also took the opportunity to use his favorite piece of
music, Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. He wanted to evoke that part of the score’s original
narrative where the dancers divide into two groups in opposition to each other, forming rival
tribes. To edited portions of the score, the cast formed concentric circles and moved in
repeating circular patterns. This motif continued throughout the piece to mimic both square
dance steps and tribal ceremonies. Kurt also twisted the Rite’s sacrificial “chosen maiden”
scenario into an isolated outsider, Kim, being taunted by the cast encircling her.

Peer pressure, team sports, political parties, racism, and sexism were illuminated in segments
by various combinations of the performers. A sequence by the quartet of women that
combined the uglier aspects of narcissism, social cliques, fashion, and religion received by
far the biggest reaction from audiences. It included each woman’s interpretation of a
highlight from a beauty pageant, which brought the house down. Together they beat their
chests with fundamentalist zeal and finished with a vindictive cheer:

Kill! Kill!
Destroy! Destroy!
We play ball! We play ball!!
Lovely to look at, a pleasure to hold!
How’d I get these legs? Eat your heart out, sucker.
Come on baby, it’s you and me. Stomp them buggers – 1 – 2 – 3!
We’re good!
We’re great!
We’re better!
Best!

To close the final sin and the show itself, the seven performed a forceful fascistic march. As
they did in the Prologue, the performers exited one at a time until the stage emptied and the
final notes of Stravinsky’s genius faded away.

The “unifying design elements” mentioned in the early press release ended up being the
single concept of backdrops that were rolled up and hung above the back of the stage
area. For each sin, when the actors were in place and the set had been changed, the
backdrop was released and with a dramatic flourish unrolled to create the back wall of the
scene about to start. Envy and Anger utilized a straightforward, solid wall of their traditionally
associated color, green and red respectively. The fabric for Sloth resembled wallpaper for
that scene’s living room setting. For Avarice the backdrop was a simple grey cloth but with
numerous hooks installed for its growing collection of handbags. On opening night at La
MaMa, as was her tradition, founder Ellen Stewart introduced the show. She also had a
superstition regarding the color green being used on stage and had banned it. When the
first backdrop appeared – a solid sheet of green – she immediately rushed backstage and
confronted stage manager Meryl Vladimir and technical director Howard Thies. Both being
very supportive of the group, they convinced her that since the scene was Envy, the green
background was absolutely essential. Ellen made an exception for Sin and allowed the
green to stay.

The three-weekend run at La MaMa was the group’s most ambitious and successful
engagement to that point. Multiple preview articles helped provide full houses for the first
weekend, while several positive reviews aided word of mouth in creating maximum
attendance for the following two. Audience reaction was robust and enthusiastic. Even with
the theoretically serious subject matter, the works all still contained the group’s audacious
sense of humor.

After the La MaMa run, Watchface was excited to take the celebrated show to MOCA the
following month. Chazz, Kurt, Melanie, and Iris had all lived in Southern California before
moving to New York and were looking forward to performing at Los Angeles’ prestigious
museum for family and friends still living on the West Coast. MOCA program By late May, Iris
was still in the first trimester of her pregnancy and was nauseous a good deal of the time.
Immediately after each performance of Sloth, with its peculiar diet, she would rush offstage
and vomit. While less active in Sloth, she recalls requesting an adjustment to the
choreography for Pride; some of her more excited cheers and jumps needed to be toned
down.

In addition to the performance, MOCA asked the group to hold a workshop, for which Iris
wrote the outline and officiated. The Saturday afternoon workshop began with brief
performances as examples of the various methods the group used to create material.
Several samples were from Sin, which gave the attendees who had already seen the show a
sense of context. The workshop then divided into seven smaller groups with each
Watchface member acting as its group’s director. Each technique was then taught and
utilized in creating a short piece about Earth’s first encounter with beings from outer space,
including a speech to the United Nations by the aliens, performed with movements
representing their true intentions. To end the workshop, each group performed their piece
for the others. workshop outline

Like their previous visit to Los Angeles for the Fringe Festival, the trip became an intense
bonding experience and great fun. MOCA put the group up in a hotel in nearby Little Tokyo,
where everyone enjoyed the community, its cuisine, and shopping for items featuring
examples of wacky Japanese to English translations. Kurt, who already enjoyed a bounty of
nicknames, accrued yet another when clothing he had left for the hotel to launder came
back labeled “Furt Fuckleton.”

After their return to New York, Sin was never presented again in its entirety, and only once, at
a benefit for Act Up, were excerpts performed. Many years later, in January of 2010, Iris
presented an evening called TV Show that consisted of several short plays that she wrote
and directed about people watching television. Sloth, with Camila Jones as Wendy, was
included. The original soundtrack was used, so it became a period piece set in 1988. It was
performed in the basement of the club Silent Barn, then in the Ridgewood neighborhood of
Queens.