Postponed!
2026 MN Shorts Showcase
Waiting For The Bus
January 28 | 7pm
A short film featuring Michael Wolfe, who identifies as a Black, queer performance artist with autism, offering insight into his daily life through movement, text, and song.
This film is part of Thresholds, a collaborative science & art project exploring the diversity of sensory processing in humans. Through performances and education, we aim to engage audiences in understanding the neurodiversity of perceptions in ourselves and others.
Text and Performance by Michael Wolfe
Director Beth Graczyk
Composer Aaron Gabriel
Editor Hanne Vaughn
Sound Engineer Mohammed Yabdri
Cinematographer Effy Grey
Personal Assistant to Michael Wolfe - Todd Miller
Created in Collaboration with Michael Wolfe, Aaron Gabriel, Beth Graczyk and Hanne Vaughn
Produced by Beth Graczyk Productions, Inc. & The Hilary and Robert Headlee Family
Made possible in part from a grant through the Sewell Family Foundation.
Thresholds
Director and choreographer Beth Graczyk, composer Aaron Gabriel, neuroscientist Guadalupe Astorga, and actor Michael Wolfe developed a collaborative project between 2020–2026, born from a shared desire to work cross-disciplinarily across science, social justice, disability awareness, and art. The project set out to explore current research on visual perception and neurodivergence, guided by neuroscientist Guadalupe Astorga and in dialogue with Michael Wolfe’s embodied experience of autism. Through live performance, film, and lecture-based formats, the collaboration sought to expand public conversation and create multiple entry points for understanding perception, difference, and lived experience.
Thresholds was developed in parallel with a clinical research project supported by a pilot award from Rockefeller University. Led by neuroscientist Guadalupe Astorga in the Gilbert Lab, the research brought together Astorga and scientist–dance artist Beth Graczyk to create an interactive, web-based experiment focused on collecting data on visual processing in both neurodivergent and neurotypical individuals.
Instructions: Track the moving figure. Notice where your eyes go, and how they are distracted or attracted towards the moving figure with the shifting background and foreground. How does sound affect your eyes and tracking of the figure?
Meshes of a Figure is a first exploration for the project Thresholds, an ongoing collaboration which explores sensory processing through sonic, visual and kinetic experiences and through the lens of neuroscience. Through these explorations Director and Choreographer Beth Graczyk, Composer Aaron Gabriel, and Neuroscientist Guadalupe Astorga aim to create greater awareness of the diversity of perceptual processing amongst us.
Choreography and Video by Beth Graczyk
Composer Aaron Gabriel
Visual Overlays Beth Graczyk & Guadalupe Astorga
Meshes of a Figure was filmed at Center for Performance Research with production by Pioneers Go East Collective. Lighting design Philip Treviño, movement video by John Burkland.