Miranda July wants audiences to create the unexpected

Writer, film director, and performer Miranda July is known for startling projects, whether it's on screen, stage, or the internet.

From short stories and novels to an Internet series and the feature film "The Future" — narrated by a cat — she creates work about how people relate to each other.

She returns to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis Thursday and Friday for the world premiere of "New Society," a show that the Walker describes as July's way of testing "the limits of what is possible given two hours and a room full of strangers."

Although July is known for her candor, she is remarkably tight-lipped about "New Society." She will only say that every show will be different and that she hopes to keep what happens inside the theater under wraps until the end of a year-long national tour.

Walker Performing Arts Curator Philip Bither was a little more forthcoming about the show when he talked about the Walkers' season in May.

"Really, this is a work about devising a utopian society," Bither said. "And she almost pretends as if what if the theater doors closed and the rest of our lives we were all living together, how would we move forward?"

When pressed, July offers some insight on "New Society."

"Well, it is very participatory," she said. "To a certain degree, anything can happen."

Those words can send a shiver of fear down the spine of many theater-goers, acknowledges July. In fact, they make her apprehensive.

"I'm one of those people, frankly," she said. "So I am very sympathetic to that."

July worked to fashion a piece that allows theater-goers to participate at their own comfort level. But the structure of the show, and her desire to keep things quiet, have created some challenges.

"I can't rehearse it without an audience," she said. "So every Monday for the last four weeks I have had an audience of 10 people in my studio."

To ensure the small audience would not know what to expect, each time July invited 10 different people. She also didn't want to include friends. They had to be strangers.

July is clearly intrigued by the idea of placing unrelated people and ideas together to see what happens. She curated a weekly email series last year where she forwarded similarly themed messages that various writers, thinkers and celebrities had culled from their own out-boxes.

Recently July drew media attention when she released the messaging app "Somebody," intended to humanize texting. The app allows a user to send a text to a person who is near the intended recipient. That "somebody" then delivers the message in person, as July depicts in this video:

It starts with a sobbing young woman selecting Paul, a huge track-suit clad man to deliver a message to her boyfriend.

"Caleb?" Paul asks the surprised looking young man.

"Yeah?"

Paul falls to his knees and screws up his face in pain.

"It's me, Jessica," Paul sobs. "I so totally love you. I just, I just can't be your girlfriend anymore. I can't. I just need some space."

As a startled Caleb bursts into tears, Paul awkwardly hugs him, and then walks away.

With "New Society," July is ready to take her audience on a different kind of adventure.

"I cringe when people have to do things they are not comfortable doing," July explained. "That said, that's different from kind of daring the audience in a way to go somewhere with you, and to say I am risking everything here. Will you do that too? Can we do that together?"

For her, she said, working on the piece was an emotional high wire act.

"Earlier today I was crying for no reason," July said during an interview Tuesday "I am sure that will happen again before I am on stage. It isn't a calming or comforting feeling."

July said her obvious vulnerability on stage helps. She believes audience members come to share pride in the fact they are creating something together.

But she doesn't expect the show to be a life-changing experience for anyone.

"All I am trying for is that when you are there, you are really there," she said.