Show Response: Mind Dream Theater Season 1

by Travis Amiel

Self-portraits of the artists

When I scroll, it sometimes feels as though the only form in the world is the interview. I think it must be that every video and audio artist or technician is allowed only to put a microphone in front of people as they have a conversation. It makes me so glad that my friend Allyson Dwyer has a new project bucking the trend! Mind Dream Theater presents short audio stories, with new episodes dropping through March 16th. The writers featured this season are Theresa Buchheister, Devon Wade Granmo, Rawya El Chab, Elijah Guo, Catherine Weingarten, and kanishk pandey. There's also a "bonus" episode from Jerrod Jordahl.

The lullaby theme song (by Devon Wade Granmo) places me right in the emotional state of slumber. The episodes feel like dreams I can remember, or states I've entered between dreams, trying to fall back asleep. For a compulsive eavesdropper such as myself, the show satisfies my curiosity to hear things I shouldn't from strangers, and try to place the little fragments into a fuller understanding of who and why they are saying all this stuff.

Mind Dream Theater Season 1 launch party at Brick Aux / photo: Lauren Serafica

There's existential spiraling about ideas ("Knock Knock Knock"), scary doomsday situations ("Der Tag der Kinder or Hamelin Revisited" or "Rough for Radio III (Annihilation)"), text-fights about petty social faux-pas ("u ruined my life... again"). Each episode has a dedicated sound designer separate from the writer and director, which means the sonic world is its own work of craft. On hiatus from live performance during COVID-lockdowns, many artists pivoted to online live streams or audio pieces, and I find I can appreciate Mind Dream so much more as a part of my now "normal" life, whatever that means!