NYTimes critic Charles Isherwood dips his toe in the interactive theatre water here
Lyn Gardner, my favorite Guardian theatre critic/blogger, wonders if "The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other" might be better performed outside
This isn't exactly breaking news, but Improv Everywhere continues to push the boundaries of theatre in playful, exciting ways... and it's spreading to the UK! (Their This American Life stories are wonderful and a little heartbreaking.)
And then we have this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, discussing a recent Heinz foundation initiative dispursing funds to arts organizations to come up with new ways to engage the audience. The results:
I'm sorry...what? Proactive signage? Circle discussions? "Arts night out with friends can be fun"? I feel kind of guilty for criticizing these ideas, and I'm really not trying to disparage anyone's good intentions (especially those backed by a generous grant), but this is a little disappointing.• Concert messaging at Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. A screen displayed information about music and the PSO between pieces, to reach out to the audience and disrupt the usual concert format.
• Changing signs at Andy Warhol Museum Brillo Boxes exhibit. Over eight weeks, officials went from using no interpretive signs to displaying proactive ones to investigate visitor experiences and interpretation.
• In the Dancer's Studio, Stagestruck and Beginning Ballet with Bob at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. These behind-the-scenes workshops let the audience inside the creative process.
• Girls Night Out at City Theatre. Friday night group specials with drink discounts and massages show that arts events with friends can be fun.
• Point of View Writing Workshops at Silver Eye Center for Photography. Participants write short stories related to photography to foster opinion sharing and interaction with art.
• Circle discussions at Quantum Theatre. Board members invite subscribers and single-ticket buyers into their homes, forcing board members and other theater officials to listen closely to audience opinions.
• European intermission and Cupcake Questions at Dance Alloy Theatre. During a half-hour intermission the audience gets free cupcakes with questions tucked inside, provoking thought and discussion in fun ways.
Community and open access are two of the biggest things going on in the world right now, and we come up with cupcakes. Why is this so hard?
Anyway, a few people seem to be getting it right (or at least are going in the right direction):
Back to Back theatre, whose "Small Metal Objects" was also featured in this year's Under the Radar. Why do I love them? (1) From New Zealand, (2) headphones, (3) engaging disability without bathos.
Punchdrunk, whose "Masque of the Red Death" is Lyn Gardner's favorite thing, and was the centerpiece of Isherwood's article.
This is a little old, but for cutting-edge technology, 82-year-old Merce Cunningham outclasses everyone. Ipods, Sigur Ros, Radiohead, and postmodern dance, anyone?
2 comments:
Geez, there's so much timidity in these ideas! I wonder who's generating and what audience they're aimed at. Sometimes our ideas of outreach can be so tone-deaf.
Tone-deaf - that's the word. The more I think about those Heinz initiatives, the more they depress me. I imagine a round-table of board members and managing leaders talking these ideas to death... yuck. I mean, this is the moment of Wikipedia and free everything from Google... and we think a "girls night out" is engaging to our audiences? Come on.
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