What happens when you mix 14 actors, 2 acrobats, 22 musicians, 1 sword swallower, 1 painter, 17 dancers, 4 choreographers, 12 writers, 1 magician, 3 composers, 18 slam poets, 1 fashion designer, 1 balloon artist, 46+ photographers, 4 performance artists on typewriters, 1 performance artist inside a skill crane machine, 1 world-famous printmaker, 2 restaurants, 1 art museum, 1 airport and 1 newspaper?
GASP! is what you get. And gasp is what you’ll do when you encounter any combination of the above (sometimes co-existing in the same person) during the 2017 edition of Creative Loafing’s multi-disciplinary arts bash, GASP!, on Friday, Mar. 31 at the Tampa Museum of Art.
GASP! An annotated schedule and guide
Since all of the above artists will be doing their artistic thing in one four-hour period from 6 to 10 p.m., much of what they’ll be doing will be happening simultaneously with other artists’ artistic things in and around the museum. So — as with any busy performance festival — you’ll have to make some choices.
Who's that girl? Since performing in GASP! 2016, Becca McCoy has lost over 100 pounds
You could linger on the plaza and cringe-watch The Human Blockhead, but don’t stay too long or you might miss that GASP!Phrastic performance you’ve come to see. You could spend hours in Billy Mays III’s Ambient Installation, but don’t zone out too much or you’ll miss that dance solo inspired by Frida Kahlo in the Atrium. Mark your evening’s calendar for Nicole Hayes’s alluring acrobatics on the Spinning Sphere, but make sure you leave room for a dip into the GASP!aret for some elegant tuneage from Paul Wilborn and Blue Roses.
GASP!Phrastic: Writers (and dancers, and actors, and singers) respond to shows at TMA
Or just float. Don’t plan. Just follow what intrigues you, wander where you may (including the upstairs galleries, where you’ll find two socko new exhibitions), and be sure to taste the inventive fare that Sono/Mise en Place has conjured up for the occasion.
Finish out the evening with the joyful noises of The Real Clash, but don’t leave without telling us your story. From 6-8 p.m., Sheryl Oring and her glamorous assistants (here’s where those typists come in) will be taking dictation from you on the plaza for “Greetings from Tampa Bay,” a collection of personal stories about the place where we live that will be included in an installation (here’s where the airport comes in) at Tampa International Airport.
So yes, you’ll have to pack a lot into your four hours on March 31. But we wager you’ll have lots of memories to take with you — and you might even be reminded of them the next time you’re about to take flight.
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 6, 2017.
