Spontaneous laughter

A wave, a jump, a finger to the lips signifying "sssh!" starts the show. Today, the brass cow in University Village is about to be saved from the slaughterhouse by a couple of Italian environmentalists. There is a spoon on someone's nose, farting noises. Someone blows a kiss.

It is not the typical bustle of a shopping center, and passers-by soon realize it. They are witnessing art without knowing what exactly they are seeing. For the performers of Project Seattle Street Theater (PSST!), public settings like the outdoor corridors between shops of the U. Village become the stage.

The natural setting of the performance fits perfectly into Sam Suver's mentality. Art, he said, is just about life. "Much of our lives are spent avoiding each other and putting up boundaries," he said. "Art has the ability to reconnect people to the beauty of being alive and awaken them to the underlying ... joy of our shared humanity." PSST! wants to remind people that the everyday world is beautiful.

Performers use "viewpoints" -- a technique that, helps them conceptualize time and space so they can focus on what their surroundings have to offer and concentrate on their roles.

Much of what the group does is dependant on what's going around them, and some acts require audience participation. Whether audience members are willing or not, they may find themselves become the show's main attraction. Getting the audience involved allows group members to connect with those who watch them -- an important element in street theater, according to Suver.

Although the club started at the UW, Suver considers the group to be a grassroots organization. Street theater has no boundaries, he said. It is meant to shake people up and make them acknowledge what is happening at that very moment. In the middle of the shopping mecca that is U. Village, these performers hope to make audiences realize that what a person really desires can never be bought.

"Our group grounds people and puts them back in the now," said Suver.

Street theater evolved during the politically turbulent 1960s and '70s in the wake of public outcry for social and political reform.

"What was great about the '60s and '70s was the decentralization of art," said Suver. "Anybody could do art anywhere." Suver believes that there is a lot of fantastic art in the world, but it is too often tucked away or hidden.

PSST! has about 40 members and performs twice each month in different locations. Even club members never know where they may find themselves acting next.

"We are the ninjas of goodwill," said group member Laura Umetsu. "You never know when or where we're going to strike next."

For Suver, PSST! and the ideals it stands for are not only real, but personal. Two months ago, Suver's mother took her own life. Now, he sees the club as a crusade to allow people to connect with one another and awaken them to "the joy and beauty that is life."

Due to his mother's death, he missed the group's June performance in front of Drumheller Fountain. Called Stop and Smell the Roses, the performences involved club members stripping all pretense of performance and simply asking passers-by to take a moment and breathe. They offered Kool-Aid and free massages.

Unlike traditional theater, street performances are often unscripted and done on the fly. People watched as they ate their dinner outside, while children danced and reacted with real excitement to the proceedings, which included a tree becoming a hot-air balloon and Hondas developing the capability to carry grown cows in their trunks.

"Now only three people can be in this square at the same time," Suver announced, as though reading instructions on a game. The remaining performers scatter into the corridors of the outdoor shopping center.

The group finally comes together again, this time in a huddle to end their performance. "We say praise the cows, say, 'Mooo!'" they chant.

Their grand finale is just in time, as a security guard has been lurking in the crowd. Two security officers approach the group to break up their distracting scenarios, but the group remains unfazed about their performance or the mild public disturbances it may cause.

"At first, I wasn't sure if I was really up for joining PSST!," confessed Sarah Maier. "But I'm a firm believer in 'Don't knock it 'til you've tried it,' so I showed up." While previous acting experience isn't necessary to join PSST!, appreciation for self-expression is.

Self-expression becomes art when put on display, they say.

The group encourages art to be defined by what spectators get out of PSST! performances.

"I get nervous that people won't be OK with taking what we're doing at face value, that they will be too concerned with getting the 'right' answer about what our performance is about and forget to think about how they feel about it," said PSST! member Nikki Przasnyski, a recent UW graduate.

In the end, however, PSST! performances come down to one message.

"I get so frickin' excited about getting people to see what they already know -- life is wonderful," said Suver.