san francisco - mark petrakis

Mark Petrakis makes things happen among people, using technology, storytelling, and deeply polished pataphysical mojo.

A few years ago, my daughter and I were invited to perform in one of his crazy COBRA LOUNGE performance revues . We had only one run-through, and it took place the afternoon of the performance. Four graphics workstations, networked and projected, a complex audio system (a tap dancer, for example, whose taps were MIDI triggers that triggered prerecorded words, enabling the dancer to tap out various sentences). Lighting, cues, costumes, makeup. We didn't get to the final blocking, where the human cues and the technological accompaniments were supposed to synchronize, until a half hour before curtain. We were, to say the least, apprehensive. Mark showed up. He had laryngitis. He was calm.

He whispered, calmly, hoarsely: "We don't have time to test this, so it will have to work on the first try. In fact, everything that happens is part of the show, so there's no way it won't work. Do what you can with what you've got, and it will happen."

It's hard to describe, but there was something in the quality of his voice that made it happen. We all knew it was impossible. It happened. It was a lesson for all of us.

Then there's the "Anon Salon," a regular gathering of digerati and demos in the upstairs gallery space South of Market. Or his "meltomedia" manifestos on the WELL's Muchomedia conference. Check it out for yourself. Mark's our man in Downtown Cybertown, and he's the Producer of WorldWide Jam. Watch him turn this collection of prima-donnas into an online improv ensemble.