Watermill Center performance invites drummers and cymbal players, no experience needed

A July 25 performance at The Watermill Center will put drums and cymbals at the center of the action, and the invitation is explicit: no experience is required. The post, shared by softcircle, is looking urgently for drummers and cymbal players, with extra drums available for participants, which makes this less like a polished showcase and more like a live test of how open percussion can be.

The piece sits inside LIMITLESS TIME: The Watermill Center Summer Festival, presented by Van Cleef & Arpels. The festival page lists an artist dinner for July 24 at 7:00 p.m. and the festival itself for July 25 at 6:00 p.m., and The Watermill Center says the event is celebrating Robert Wilson. Another festival listing says the annual summer program will include performances, installations, and gathering over two days, placing the percussion callout in the middle of a broader interdisciplinary arts setting rather than a one-off concert bill.

That setting matters because the performance is being led by EYE of Boredoms, a name that signals physical, high-volume, improvisatory energy rather than a standard seated set. For a beginner drummer or cymbal player, the practical role is straightforward: show up to contribute pulse, texture, and impact as part of a larger collective sound. The ask is not for chops, charts, or conservatory polish. It is for bodies, sticks, and metal.

The Watermill Center is built for that kind of experiment. It describes itself as a laboratory for the arts and humanities, and says it offers year-round artist residency programs, open studios, exhibitions, tours, lectures, and other events and activities. Its 10-plus-acre grounds are open every day from dawn to dusk for exploring, though the buildings are not included in that general access. That combination of open space and performance infrastructure gives the July 25 event room to function as communal art, not just a stage presentation.

Robert Wilson’s shadow over the site is direct. The Watermill Center says his productions have decisively shaped the look of theater and opera since the late 1960s, and the center’s book release, The Watermill Center - A Laboratory for Performance: Robert Wilson’s Legacy, was published to coincide with Wilson’s 70th birthday and the 20th anniversary of Watermill’s founding. In that context, the drum and cymbal invitation reads like a deliberate opening of the door: the kit is not backline decoration here, it is the point of entry.