Performance Deli

During a Performance Deli, customers stop in anytime we are open. They select from a printed menu of improvisational forms—ranging from dramatic to playful. They give their order to our waitstaff, and enjoy the other patrons' performances until their order is up. The waitstaff asks for payment for their selection, which is whatever is required to make the improvisation work—a theme word, choosing an object, maybe even participating! They enjoy their piece, then stay until their hunger for performance art is satisfied.  Watch videos from the Performance Deli in Corning, NY.

Artists, Entrepreneurs or Social Engineers?

As improvisers, we thrive on the unknown and are constantly experimenting, much like entrepreneurs. "What if?" and "why not?" are our favorite questions.  Specifically, the Performance Deli allows us to ask: Can improvised art feed people, inspiring them to imagine their lives differently—seeing opportunity where they didn't before? While fear makes us contract and become constricted, can the creation of community-based art help us expand again, and inspire us to reach out to each other to solve problems in new ways? The Performance Deli audience has an opportunity to chew on these questions with us!

Contact us for more information, or if you are interested in exploring the possibility of AMI opening a Performance Deli in your town.

The development and debut of this project was made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts' Decentralization Program, administered locally by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes. Thanks to the generous support of Michael Orr and The Hawkes Building for the use of the downtown Corning space.