Post 3: Winking Through The Illusion(ism) in Beertown
This week, we’ve been reading and conversing about various
kinds of realism in performance. In the Caminata Nocturn, the border-crossing
reenactment event in Mexico by Underiner, facilitators seemed to “dance back
and forth between totally being in reality and pausing to comment on reality.” Underiner
seeks to “’put you there’ in the middle of an experience that is all-too-real
for many people.” In racking my brain for other instances that I have
experienced where theatre is “too real,” I stumbled on a possible candidate,
depending on how the show’s treatment is handled.
Below is part of the article that best encapsulates a short
description of what this experience is. It had a successful run in New York at
59E59 and Lincoln Center’s director’s lab before touring and including Omaha on
its tour.
Dog & pony dc's
ensemble-devised BEERTOWN is an interactive exploration of history, civic
ritual, identity, community and memory that incorporates live music, dance,
group song...and a dessert potluck. Part-civic ceremony, part-theatrical
pageant, the show welcomes audiences into the 20th BEERTOWN Time Capsule Day
celebration, where every five years the imagined small American town unearths
its beloved Time Capsule and ritualistically reviews its contents.The BEERTOWN
tour provides an exciting opportunity for the production to be re-shaped to fit
each theatre and its community, with each stop of the tour featuring a newly
customized BEERTOWN. Dog & pony dc ensemble members and local artists will
form a creative team to rehearse and perform the show, shaping it to reflect
local concerns, hot-button issues and history. During performances, the
audience is then empowered to generate dialogue specific to their values and
experiences, mirroring the pulse of each particular community.
When I experienced Beertown
in Omaha in late Fall of 2015, I was taken aback by how much audience
participation was expected to make the performance a success. I felt myself
getting sucked into the importance of some artifacts and the arguments that
would occur between audience members about the importance of one item over
another.
I was in Omaha rehearsals for the National Tour of a
Christmas Carol when we had an evening off, for which I took in this gem. Dog
and Pony Theater, out of D.C., created an interactive theatre piece that immersed
its audience members in what can feel like a real town hall quinquennial (every
5 years) meeting by the end of the event. The link here describes an experience
beyond my own of one of the D.C. performances. Since every performance is as
unique as its audience, it’s worth noting the differences instead of
cataloguing the similarities. Their performance happened in a place with a
large deaf community for which they have adapted and provide interpreters
throughout the event. As the shows continue, newer and more modern artifacts and
new political issues are added as the times change. This article describes the
experience well for our purposes. https://taggmagazine.com/dog-and-pony-theater-beertown/
Before I chose to go, the buzz about it being interactive
was a bit scary to a newcomer to interactive theatre. I was completely surprised
by how passionate audience members became about the artifacts they were
fighting for or against, but I too felt some passion for particular items based
on such motivators as upbringing, current experience, political climate, and
just liking or not liking the argument of other audience member as they
presented their thoughts. This performance became, in many ways, a “real”
meeting, with “too real” issues, and “real” people fighting for them. The
convention of a town hall meeting where audience members are expected to take
on roles in the experience could pose a slippery slope for the
actors/facilitators if they are not trained for the best and worst. I imagine
that there are more than a few risks that surface when preparing to mount this
piece (though the risks may not outweigh the possibilities for creating a
ripple to affect change in the level of appreciation of the political process).
The performance could go on for hours beyond the expected run time (or the
opposite) depending on the level of investment built into the audience members
by the acting company. Sensitive or offensive topics could come up as a result
of a trigger artifact causing negative ramifications for not only other theater
pieces in the same vein but perhaps even for theatres that produce this work
moving forward. If one of the goals is to reignite a desire to be a part of the
local governmental process, the success or lack thereof of this piece could
influence audience members to act or be silent in future need. Members of the company
spoke to some of these risks and their process for addressing them in the
rehearsal process, though a guaranteed outcome is not possible.
This release of control of the outcome or script could go
in a very sour direction or become “too real” if the actors (who, if acted
well, seem just like the next person in the room) are not well equipped to head
off red flags in discussion before they get out of hand. The rehearsal trained “winks”
are vital to the success of this piece. With the current political climate, I
could see certain topics as being difficult ones to keep in good spirits,
depending on the location and clientele of the audience. I find that the purpose
of a piece of theatre like this is to build connections and interest in coming
together for a common goal and to rebuild interest by allowing the common
people to have a voice and ability to persuade a body of people.
No comments:
Post a Comment