Name: Whit MacLaughlin

Company: New Paradise Laboratories

Artistic occupation: Artistic director

First experience with coffee that made you understand coffee: Coffee crept inexorably into my life. One day I turned around and I was married to it.

Coffee you drink at home: Whole Foods 365 brand. French Roast. Very reliable and it used to be pretty cheap.

How do you like your coffee? Naked.

Average no. of cups per day? Um between 3 and 30 cups.

Fave coffee shop: My house.

Fave fancy coffee drink: I don’t have one. No offense. On occasion I’ll drink a coffee boilermaker–black coffee with an espresso shot. But that’s just ridiculous.  In Japan they sell a “tonic” from vending machines: a sweet base with triple caffeine, nicotine, and a completely weird snort of full strength menthol. It’s compelling.

What’s the most inappropriate thing a barista has ever said to you? I still don’t always remember the NYC “black-but-no-cream-OR-sugar” coffee culture aberration. Also remember that coffee is now bonified medicine. Prevents depression, reduces suicide, provides deterrent to cancer in general, drastically reduces prostate cancer. Insurance companies should institute financial incentive to consume.  [Ed. note: neither of these answers really responds to the question, but that’s the artistic privilege.]

Enough about coffee, what are you doing now? The Poet Laureate of Capitalism with the Riot Group in NYC; Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night—new play by Kara Lee Corthron at Interact Theatre; and 27, the new NPL piece at this year’s Live Arts. Also FATEBOOK in Prague and a crazy app delivered all-city performance piece in Kansas City, Missouri.

[Ed note: Check out this nice article on mashable.com about NPL and creating online performance spaces.]