By Xuezhu Jenny Wang

In Brooklyn, at the Center for Performance Research, Giving You the Best That We Got: The Ayana & Tsedaye Variety Show, held over two evenings, brightened a drizzly summer weekend in June. The program blurred the boundary between reality, satire, and comedy, inviting viewers into a world of uncontrollable jiggles, introspective conversations, and reluctant make-believe.

The performance space was uniquely compact: the stage waa divided into a living room-like space for interviews, and a performance area where the “action” happens. In the back is a big screen for video projections, and downstage left a dresser with lights, makeup products, and a mirror. The DJ booth, the stage manager’s booth, cameras, and monitors were all around the performance space. There was an interactive and engaging quality to this close-packed setup—the fourth wall is rendered nonexistent, and the audience occasionally glances at the side monitors to see if the camera is panning over their faces.