Ken Shear’s solo, or How to get heckled by teenage punks while throwing apples, constructing a poem, and dancing from the “gravity in my chest”

These are the things I learned about Ken that influenced/shaped/inspired this work: he is a writer, and had an unfinished poem he was working on with two lines completed: “Sir Isaac’s apocryphal apple fell,” and “truth
without believer never was;” two colors he thinks go well together are yellow and gray (yellow sunflowers on a cement grey stage); the last gift he gave was 12 jars for storing gluten free flour; he plays tennis; the poem he was working on has to do with thoughts about honesty and truth.

I arrived at Volunteer Park around 1:30pm on Saturday the 20th, to find it filled with people basking in the incredible March sun! Needless to say, the pick-nick tables and cement stage I was planning on using for the solo were occupied- by Frisbee tossers, chatting friends, and even a group adorned in medieval-looking attire, preparing for an Equinox Celebration Parade. Luckily, the sun had put everyone in a great mood, and no one had any qualms with me taking over the stage with a vase of sunflowers, a tennis racket, tennis balls, a bag holding 12 empty glass jars, a microphone and mic stand, a single apple, and small amp.

Ken arrived with his wife, his son, and a friend, and I read everyone the definitions of “truth” and “gravity.” I then gave them two minutes to write down anything inspired by those words on a notecard, then had everyone give their cards to Ken. I gave Ken three minutes to construct or select 10 different phrases using

any of the writing he had been given, and/or anything else he wanted to add. As he was doing this, I ran to the stage and set up the 12 glass jars (lids off, lining the front of the stage), turned on the microphone, and prepared for Phase II: the construct a poem section. Speaking into the microphone, I asked Ken to drop one of his phrases into each of the empty jars (I had already filled two of the jars with the two lines of the unfinished “Sir Isaac” poem he had sent me.) I then asked Ken to take a fresh piece of paper, and transcribe every word I said for the rest of the piece starting NOW.

Then, a dash between all the jars in random order, and interspersed with reading each phrase, tennis balls were bounced, TRUTH and GRAVITY signs were set up (GRAVITY fell down, ha!) an apple was thrown out into the field, and yes, some dancing. My favorite line said “I’ve got gravity in my chest, can you feel it?  See it? Hear it?” I also particularly liked the line, “Sky falling, Frisbees fall, no leaves on the ground.”

A quartet of punky teenagers were busy commenting on EVERYTHING I said and did, “Call an ambulance, she’s dying!” “Look at me! Look at ME!” “This is the most truth I’ve seen all day!” It definitely made me aware of the fact that I was doing some serious INTERPRETIVE DANCING.

At the end of this hootenanny, I asked Ken to bring me the transcribed poem, which I read in full form, then gave to him. The idea all along had been for him to finish his unfinished poem. Hoping to post the poem soon….