For those of you who missed it, and those of you who want to relive the magic of the first ever Building Stage lab, below are videos of four of the pieces created for the evening.  Enjoy!

1: Created by Max Wirt

2: Created by Fannie Hungerford

3: Created by David Amaral, Eddie Bennett, Daiva Bhandari, and Pamela Maurer

4: Created by Blake Montgomery and Joanie Schutlz

Our first Lab produced lots to be super excited about.  Perhaps most exciting is that we officially launched this project and, well, it worked!  Five thrillingly creative and varied proposals were presented in response to the first  CHALLENGE. There was bawdy commedia, dance theatre, a mind-bending musical monologue, and a horse head on a stick!

After the presentation, artists and guests circled up to share their thoughts on the evening.  The artists had a chance to express some of the ideas they were playing with, and explain a bit about how they made their pieces.  Audience members were then able to share what they saw, thought, and what connections they noticed between the proposals and the prompt.

From here, we’ll treat the Lab itself as an ongoing experiment.  We will  refine the way we shape our challenges and presentations with the goal of encouraging theatrical imagination.

Challenge 2 is 8/11.  Title: “SURPRISE!”  Proposals should be…

Finally, if you missed the first Lab, here’s a taste:

Proposal by Max Wirt (w/ the Rough House)

Proposal by Blake Montgomery and Joanie Schultz

Proposal by Fannie Hungerford

Proposal by David Amaral (with Eddie Bennett, Daiva Bhandari, and Pamela Maurer)

Proposal by Steve Ptacek

CHALLENGE: Translate Chagall’s painting “I and the Village” into a short theatrical performance.

Chagall's painting "I and the Village"

“Translate” is perhaps exactly the right word. The goal is to take what is expressed in one language (painting) and translate it into ours (live theater).

You can use the painting to inform your narrative (if you choose to create one), but the focus is not on telling the story of the painting. Rather, we are looking to translate the experience of viewing the painting. What in the painting excites you, confuses you, surprises you, makes you wonder, makes you imagine? How does the painting move and guide your focus? How does style create the mood? What is the logic of the world in the painting?

Now, translate. How can you make a theatrical expression of the same mood, structure, style, or whatever quality in the painting gets your heart thumping? How do the adjectives that describe the painting morph when they describe live theater?

Creation time should be quick. Don’t dwell. Aim to spend maybe 8 hours total conceiving and creating. Creations should end up between 3 and 10 minutes long.