Primal Egg Drop

The students have been told that class will start ten minutes late on this first day of the semester. They sit on stools arranged in a semicircular row at one end of the large darkened art studio classroom. A spotlight is directed on a small table covered with a large red velvet cloth. Stark white against the cloth are an egg and a cardboard center from a toilet paper roll. A cut-glass footed tumbler, half filled with water, sparkles against a shining aluminum pie tin . A straw broom leans against the table. Another spotlight illuminates the space behind the table.

The door opens and the teacher walks in.
He is wearing a white plastic coverall, some kind of animal half-mask and a belled jester's cap. He quickly walks to behind the table and looks at everyone in the room. Then he looks over their heads, takes a few deep breaths and screams long and loud.

As the reverberations fade in the concrete room, he quickly but carefully moves the water glass to the edge of the table, centers the pie tin on it, places the cardboard tube upright in the middle and balances the egg on top of the tube. He then takes the broom, and after several adjustments, steps on the straws of the broom while holding the handle back from the table's edge.
He pauses and, while looking over the heads of the onlookers, he releases the handle.
The broom smacks the pie tin which clatters into the darkness. The cardboard tube goes flying. The egg drops straight down splashing into the glass of water. Or maybe it misses and hits the table with a thud. Either way, the teacher immediately returns to his station behind the table, looks into the distance, breathes deep and screams again. Teacher exits.

The teacher returns out of costume and conducts the first day of class as usual, with no reference to this event until the end of class when students are assigned the task of responding to this performance.
Below are selected student responses.

Art has many different interpertations. A line of poetry such as, "Why did you have to leave?" can be someone talking about anything, their father, their girlfriend, or their dog. Art is the least understandable thing in the universe, aside, of course, from the artists themselves.

Winfred comes into the room. He is an artist. He goes to the desk, and sits in his well worn in seat. He makes sure that his pencils are sharp, and his erasures are clean. He draws. for hours he draws, a new line added there, and a new line erased there, he finds a new perfection. His friends all come and see. "Oh, Winfred. It is marvelous - your best yet!," they exclaim.
He beams with pride. The work is perfect in his eyes. Well, except for that line there. It is a little crooked... other than that, it is just fi... . Well, the shading in the lower right corner is just a bit... and the arc of the horizon is a little too... .
"Damn it!" he howls, "This is horrible. I'm horrible. Everyone out. Get your eyes off of this peice of shit and leave my hell hole now!!" They all disagree, and say that it is wonderful, but it doesn't matter, he is already pissing on the torn up shreds of his former "masterpeice."

Your actions last week were about freedom, expression and emotions. They symbolized that time and procedures are involved in everything that is done. When you performed your skit, I felt like that was me at times. I get frustrated when I cannot get something to work. There are times when I get so angry that I just want to quit. I want to scream too. I thought it was a good example of what everyone has gone through at times. If one has not experienced that feeling before then, maybe, there is no caring or determination in that person.

I think that you showed anger. When a person has a lot on their mind
while going through their day, they tend to break down and
show their emotions. When you walked in and screamed in
the beginning, that showed that, after having a bad day, you
tend to get aggravated easily. When the egg got knocked
down, that was lack of concentration because of things that
were on your mind. The clothes that you wore could have
been a way to hide yourself from others in concealing your
true emotions. The broom sweeping could have been a way
to keep things in order and not get out of control.

I think your presentation was a good example of how it feels to be an
artist. Your apparel represented your inner child expressing itself. You entered a room full of students and didn’t acknowledge them. Just looking straight to the back represents how artists can be so wrapped up in their own heads that they ignore what’s right in front of them. Also, most art is done when artists are alone in their studio. This could have been the intent of everyone sitting in the shadows. Then the horrifying scream that was let out was a release of all the built up emotions that accompany artists before they actually start their project. The ideas in one's head can be very overwhelming.
I don’t really think that there was a plan for the egg once you hit the tower with the broom handle. Just the fact that you put a lot of time and
concentration into the piece is where the significance lies. Some times artists have no idea of the final outcome that they would like to see, but just what it ends up being. After the egg fell, you let out another horrific scream then walked out of the room. That was the final release of mixed emotions of tension, stress, happiness and fear that the piece is finally done. I think most of the time, artists may feel that their piece is not completely done, or that they could have done something differently. I think all of those thoughts were put into your last scream. Then you had to walk away from it because you were irritated, but yet satisfied that you made an attempt.

DREAM

I felt as if I was having a dream.
The spot light was a star in the sky.
When I heard you yell,
I felt all anger
vanish from my life.
All my troubles were taken away.

As the broom hit the egg, I woke up.
The egg sat in the glass
like the world in its ocean waters.

Shannon Brown