-Albert Einstein
A disturbance that I often think about is Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar's installation entitled "A Logo for America". Now before you roll your eyes, thinking, "Michael, the prompt said the theatre world," I would like to bend the lines for a second between theatre and art. Couldn't we argue that theatre is art and a type of art is theatre? Great. Now that we're on the same page, back to Jaar's installation. Every night in August of this year, for three minutes from 11:57 PM to 12:00 AM, all the digital billboards in Times Square, NYC, were replaced with stark black and white images stating "THIS IS NOT AMERICA" and "THIS IS NOT AMERICA'S FLAG". Talk about a disturbance, right!? Can you imagine being a tourist in Times Square at that time, loving life, and then all of a sudden those images came up? I'd be terrified that a terrorist attack was happening. It definitely brought a change about in how, or where, we see art. That would be typical inside of a museum, but towering over you in an iconic American attraction? Nuts.
It took me a while to figure out what Jarr was trying to say, but the point of his art **SPOILER ALERT!** was that we often think of America as just the good ole USA, but America actually comprises both North and South America. We rarely think of Canada and Mexico as America. I think this artistic protest of sorts was very effective. It would definitely catch anyone's attention who was in Times Square. It made me personally look up Jaar and his mission, and I think while some might have been initially frightened if they didn't know what was happening, some might welcome the break, albeit short, from the monotonous onslaught of ads. (Read more about Jaar's work here, if you want.)
I think there are three major things the modern theatre artist can do to bring theatre into the 21st century, and reinvigorate community attendance. Tweet Seats, Immersive Theatre, and Fringe Theatre.
Tweet Seats
Sarah Stevens and I were talking about this after class today, and it's something that Karli Henderson has continuously brought up in Swine Palace meetings. Today's 20somethings, the crowd most able to return to the theatre, have phones glued in the hands. It's just a fact. So don't tell them to turn them off! Encourage phone use! Take pictures and videos, Instagram it, Facebook it, Tweet it, Tweet about the show, share the show on as much social media as you can handle. Text your friends how good the show is! Phone screens can be distracting to an audience, so designate some "Tweet Seats" in the mezzanine and chop a few bucks off the general ticket price, and bam - your show now lives a second life online.
Immersive Theatre
What better way to get people wanting to go the theatre than putting them in it? Stage a performance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest inside of an old insane asylum. Put a production of A Midsummer's Night Dream in the Enchanted Forest behind the MDA. Build the set around the audience and have them sit alongside the actors. Involve people! Push them around, get them on their feet, change venues, don't have seats. Or like NOLA Project just did with Adventures in Wonderland, have three versions of the same show going at the same time. Or if you really wanna blow them out of the water, check out Sleep No More. So. Cool.
Fringe Festivals and Fringe Theatre
Sometimes we don't need lavish sets. Sometimes we don't want things to make sense. Sometimes quick and rough and messy is the way to go. I went to the New Orleans Fringe Festival for the first time last year and it was a whirlwind. Theatre in bars, in backyards, in churches turned opera houses. Most of the shows were less than an hour, and if you planned your night right, you could see 4-5 performances in one night. And then, poof, you'll never hear of most of these shows ever again. Rouge theatre has some real possibilities to bring theatre into the 21st century, and with a huge all-consuming culture, where news comes and goes and social media is all the rage, quick theatre might be the way to go.
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that such a disruption would resonate some sort of reaction...especially in NYC Times Square. I'm sure the street became much darker than normal and caught many people by surprise. This type of disruption would make me wonder if something was going to happen. I'm with you and would probably be freaking out next to you. I wonder if people just stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the electric billboards until they disappeared to the original marketing ploys. Were they insulted or terrified or confused...maybe a little of everything? I get the picture in my head that hundreds of people are all staring up at these billboards like a scene from a sci-fi thriller. Did they google or ask Siri what this was about? Ambiguity seems to produce two different reactions...either amusement or fear.
You have some neat marketing ideas to bring, at least the younger generation, to the theatre. My immediate thought, of course, is whether the tweet seats or immersive theatre experiences would cause a distraction to the performance? Good or bad distractions. Like volunteers got selected to be in an ensemble scene but they either don't really participate fully or take attention away from the action...everyone likes a ham.
The Fringe idea is exciting. Live music is such a big part of social gatherings--why not live theatre performance in bars, shopping areas, street festivals, restaurants, public parks, etc...It would be a good outlet for actors to practice their craft, playwrights to hone their skills, directors to bring about change, and for the public to take in more cultural experiences.
I like all these ideas. Good form, ol' chap.
Yeah I have to second a lot of what Joe has said-- especially when it comes to Fringe theatre. Some of the best moments of theatre thus far in my life have been either performing in or producing shows for Fringe Festivals. Nothing is treated as being so precious that it can't fail, and I think that that really empowers the theatre artists involved to take a risk. One of the shows that I directed for Kansas City Fringe ended up being performed in a bar-- no one told us that we would be performing in a bar until about two weeks prior to the performance- then once we got there we realized we were not only performing in a bar- we were performing in the worlds TINIEST bar. We had to reimagine a bunch of aspects of the show on the fly and it ended up working out shockingly well. My point is that we shouldn't treat the work that we do as being fragile or holy-- we should embrace all the interruptions and diversions that we encounter along the way.
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