Founder and Artistic Director Chris Garcia Peak, Co-Director of The Octopus an interactive choose-your-own-adventure story out March 11th, 2022.
by Ethan K.W
I stumbled upon something brewing in the Midwest, always on the lookout for the latest scoop on upcoming trends in the art scene. For a little over a decade, Chicago-based non-profit art and theatre group has been at the forefront of innovation in combining digital arts, drama, and other artistic mediums. This is ‘Cock and Bull’, a grant recipient of The Foundation of Contemporary Arts, The Driehaus Foundation, and members of the National Network of Ensemble Theatres. Founded by Artistic Director Chris Garcia Peak, this art group has produced several plays, often exploring psychology and sexuality in fantastical and surreal settings.
This Chicago based experimental arts organization presents the world premiere of a choose-your-own-adventure digital story, The Octopus. The Octopus is virtual theatre combining gameformance and storytelling into a hybrid digital platform.
Influenced by the rise in online conspiracy theories, the company wanted to tell a story differently in a virtual space. The Octopus is a dark comedy examining how someone gets trapped in the world of conspiracy theories searching for a better existence. “Just when you think your life is awful, The Octopus reminds you it can get a lot worse. The Octopus is part guru, part mind-controlling beast, and she wants what’s best for you…really,” says Artistic Director and founder Chris Garcia Peak. “We utilized technology to tell a story in a new way. We are still experimenting with telling stories and performing outside of the traditions of the theatrical space”. Since 2009, Cock and Bull has focused more on process than performance, creating devised work, producing original plays, and venturing into narrative podcasts series and digital performance.
Lately, particularly in the last decade, the emphasis on art in games has truly become dramatically more intense. In the past, the appearance of the game was second fiddle to more important aspects like gameplay and story. Often this was the case because the capability of technology was limited, and computer graphics were simply not able to display anything approaching realistic. Now that computer technology has advanced by light-years, artists have opened up a new avenue, and digital art has approached center stage to dive into new technology.
I sat down with Chris Garcia Peak, Cock and Bull’s Founder and Artistic Director.
Digital Collages by Geri Widodo, Indonesian based collage artist.
First thing I’d like to thank you for the chance to speak with you. I know I might be jumping the gun a bit, but I really honestly cannot contain my excitement about The Octopus. What can you tell us about it?
Chris: The Octopus is a choose your own adventure interactive digital story featuring a mix of actors from Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Germany, China. It’s really about conspiracy theories or how you can easily get trapped in the world of conspiracy theories. It’s a funny look at how this can happen to someone and the crazy people you meet along the way.
Can you tell us who is The Octopus? I noticed on the website that the tagline is ‘The Octopus is waiting to change your life,’ which I find very intriguing. I’ve been really curious about whether this is about a person or based on anyone in particular?
Chris: The Octopus is a real Octopus who wants world domination and power and has coaxed someone into questioning their life choices.
Conspiracy theories, misinformation, and collage art inspired Cock and Bull Arts
Circling back to something you said earlier, can you give us some clarification about what you meant by The Octopus being about conspiracy theories? How have conspiracy theories influenced the creative process? Any insight on that would be amazing.
Chris: During the election, I started reading a lot about people lost in the world of various conspiracy theories. They all had similarities, the main one was how unhappy everyone was in their daily life, and the Pandemic didn’t help things. People who were and are stuck hate their work life, their home life, they want something more, and just like with any cult, they find the answers. They then all realize their life could actually get worse. Ours is a much lighter version of this, we aren’t taking ourselves too seriously, but it’s a fun adventure.
When and how did this project start? Was there anyone that you collaborated with when deciding on the topic and tone of The Octopus? How does this latest project relate to your team’s previous work?
Cock and Bull company member Eddy Karch plays Stefan the conceptual artist in The Octopus Interactive Story
Chris: During the start of the Pandemic in 2020, I knew we had to do something, so we created an online virtual international art festival called Sessions – Isolation. I took the event we had produced over the years about exposing Chicago to experimental film, performance artists, etc. We did it online with artists from around the world, filmmakers, solo performers, writers, dancers, and visual artists. The work was focused on how they interpreted Isolation or their pieces related to Isolation. It was a great way to work with other actors and performers in Chicago and our company members in a new way. We had finished a narrative podcast series The Children of Nyx, so I knew our next piece had to be a digital project; I thought a short film initially. One of our co-artistic directors Sarah Hecht and I kept talking about conspiracy theories, and I felt like that was the rabbit hole we needed to go down. Also, to keep working together virtually felt like we were pushing ourselves to think outside the norms of performance.
Actor Tilman Böhnke recorded live from Potsdam, Germany with directors Chris Garcia Peak and Matt Reich. Chicago actor Sierra Phan (right) plays multiple roles in Cock and Bull Arts interactive story The Octopus premiering March 11, 2022.
What can you tell us about your creative process for The Octopus? To what degree did the actors and other members of the team collaborate in the early steps taken in the design direction? How did you come to the decision that you were going to make a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ interactive story?
Chris: I created a basic story or outline, very rough that was like two pages, and sent my company members a writing assignment. It was almost like Mad-libs, which was a much more significant influence on me than I ever thought. So I got the responses back in a matter of days. Everyone was having fun with it, and the answers were so fantastic. Their content formed the story and created all of the characters in the piece. I was trying to find a way to share everyone’s responses and ran across Typeform (form building app/bot). I just started playing around with it, we then partnered with them, and seeing its ability and thought this would be super cool to do a designed choose your own adventure story, so it is all created by Cock and Bull company members.
Co-artistic director and Story Developer Sarah Hecht. Hecht also plays Romance Novelist Allison Brie. Co-Director and Artistic Director Matt Reich also served as sound designer on the interactive story The Octopus by Cock and Bull Arts.
You mentioned earlier that you have team members from around the world living in the US, UK, Germany, and China. I assume that requires a lot of scheduling and coordination to make progress on the project. What can you tell us about the process of working with actors virtually?
Actor Eddie Jordan
“I worked with Eddie a long time ago, he is one of the best comedic actors, his timing and skills are really deep and funny.”
Chris: We started working with actors and then had to re-think our whole process. Matt Reich, our sound designer, co-director, and I observed via Zoom actors self-taping in front of green screens. We tried to utilize actors' ability to self-tape, which they really had to sharpen during the Pandemic.
We gave actors certain moments or things they had to mention, but it was all improv. At times I would interview them; each actor was a bit different. The cool thing is that each actor costumed themselves and had to be their tech assistant. The actors were all so amazing to work with. It was also a new way to work. We could work with someone like Nathan Streifel in Los Angeles, our company member Kristen King in London, and an outstanding actor Tilman Böhnke, in Potsdam, Germany, and Eddie Jordan, who lives in China. Eddie’s was interesting. Because of the time difference, we decided to just let him tape on his phone in various locations and establish his character more organically.
“The Octopus is a real Octopus who wants world domination and power and has coaxed someone into questioning their life choices.”
Chicago actor Van Ferro, actors were recorded in at home green screen self-taping set-ups. Chicago’s Chic Filet aka Heinrich Haley plays Bebe The Art Dealer and Alyssa the Nuclear Physicist in Cock and Bull Arts interactive story The Octopus.
Finally, I wanted to ask you about the approach you have taken to the overall design of this new project? Could you tell us more about Matthew Reich’s role, and are there other people who contributed to The Octopus that you want to give a shout-out to?
Chris: Matt and I tend to think the same aesthetically or have worked together enough. I can say one or two things, and he knows what we are going after. He has a great way of creating and filling out the world sonically. I did the majority of video design and outsourced some editing, worked with the actors on-camera. We wanted a darker, saturated feel to the videos of jump cuts and the idea that these are all made under the Ocean by the Octopus in her lair.
The Octopus, by the way, is a voice-over by an outstanding British voice actor (Jenny Steele), and hearing her helped flesh out the story development for me. I used and expanded on created content with our Story editor and developer, co-artistic director, Sarah Hecht, hearing The Octopus in my head. Company-member Noah Lepawsky and I also created a dramaturgical deep dive on our website, so if you really want to sink down into the world of The Octopus, you can dive in.
Los Angeles actor Nathan Streifel plays Azriel Feinstein, the former child piano prodigy in Cock and Bull’s The Octopus digital interactive story
Readers can find out more about Cock and Bull by visiting their website.
Check out the cast and more collage art.
Again, a hot thanks to Chris Garcia Peak for sharing details about this exciting new digital art project, featuring:Tilman Böhnke, Meg Elliot, Eddy Jordan, Van Ferro, Sarah August Hecht, Eddy Karch, Kirsten King, Sierra Phan, Jenny Steele, Nathan Streifel, and Matt Reich.
The digital arts choose-your-own-adventure project ‘The Octopus’ will be premiering in 2022, and I can’t wait to see it and experience it for myself!
Ethan K.W. is a Washington based writer for Arts and Lifestyle
