I've been thinking a lot about theatre and communal spaces lately. The most impressive play I've ever been involved with (I was an audience member, but to say all I did was "see" the play doesn't begin to encompass the experience) was We Players' production of Macbeth, which took place at the breathtaking Fort Point in San Francisco. While this isn't exactly a communal space, I am astounded at how effectively the shared experience created a bond amongst the audience members (again, I use the term loosely) and developed a sense of community without ever having us speak to one another.
That was really a long-winded way of saying that I am increasingly fascinated by performances that use alternative spaces. In particular, I am interested in the power of theatre to transform communal spaces. I know the biggest problem that theatre companies large and small face is how to fill the seats...but what if rather than (or in addition to) pumping money into luring people into the theatre, we brought the theater to the people?
I think that rather than waiting for audiences to go out of their way to come to a defined theatrical space, it would be interesting to bring theatre into already defined communal spaces and, in doing so, transform them. Improv Everywhere already does an incredible job at this, creating mind-boggling experiences for unsuspecting viewers. What I am interested in doing, rather than having a huge number of people involved in large-scale spectacles, is literally bringing short scenes into spaces with an already defined audience. Each scene would be written specifically for its context and audience...thus some would be funny, some would be tragic, some poetic, some just plain weird, and others all of these things at the same time. In a coffee shop, for example, maybe it would be a play about two hipsters hitting on each other with increasingly obscure musical references. In the BART maybe it would be a scene about awkwardly making eye contact with someone you know-but-only-tangentially (Do you go up to them? Do you sit next to them? Do you take your iPod ear buds out to talk to them? Do you keep your book open or closed if they sit next to you?). On the street maybe it would be a monologue from a homeless person, and so on and so forth.
If I wanted I could use a narrator to establish the scene's "theatricality." If I felt the message that I wanted to convey would best be told through a series of poems, or no words at all, I could do that.
I obviously have many details to work out, but I am definitely excited about the possibilities!
That was really a long-winded way of saying that I am increasingly fascinated by performances that use alternative spaces. In particular, I am interested in the power of theatre to transform communal spaces. I know the biggest problem that theatre companies large and small face is how to fill the seats...but what if rather than (or in addition to) pumping money into luring people into the theatre, we brought the theater to the people?
I think that rather than waiting for audiences to go out of their way to come to a defined theatrical space, it would be interesting to bring theatre into already defined communal spaces and, in doing so, transform them. Improv Everywhere already does an incredible job at this, creating mind-boggling experiences for unsuspecting viewers. What I am interested in doing, rather than having a huge number of people involved in large-scale spectacles, is literally bringing short scenes into spaces with an already defined audience. Each scene would be written specifically for its context and audience...thus some would be funny, some would be tragic, some poetic, some just plain weird, and others all of these things at the same time. In a coffee shop, for example, maybe it would be a play about two hipsters hitting on each other with increasingly obscure musical references. In the BART maybe it would be a scene about awkwardly making eye contact with someone you know-but-only-tangentially (Do you go up to them? Do you sit next to them? Do you take your iPod ear buds out to talk to them? Do you keep your book open or closed if they sit next to you?). On the street maybe it would be a monologue from a homeless person, and so on and so forth.
If I wanted I could use a narrator to establish the scene's "theatricality." If I felt the message that I wanted to convey would best be told through a series of poems, or no words at all, I could do that.
I obviously have many details to work out, but I am definitely excited about the possibilities!
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