In her Practice Manual for the Six Viewpoints, Mary Overlie describes the practice of Doing the Unnecessary as “a movement exploration that should be extended to breaking logic of all kinds…performers are permitted to be obstructive, non-cooperative, or minimally cooperative.”

My favorite memory of Mary providing an example of the Unnecessary was at the dinner table in Basin, Montana. We had cooked up some steak and asparagus and potatoes and onions. The sun was setting…