David created this challenge for this upcoming lab at a really opportune moment for me, as this idea of shared imagination is at the forefront of my mind.
I’m currently reading a book by British director Mike Alfreds, entitled Different Every Night: Freeing the Actor. Alfreds is best known for his company, Shared Experience, which toured the world, and many I know saw his work and was blown away back when Chicago had an international theater festival. (Side note: why don’t we have that anymore?) This book is an incredibly detailed account of how he directs and the process he created for actors. But that’s not the important part here, the important part are the ideas that correspond with the lab next week.
He writes that he was trying to articulate what it is that theater does that is different from the other arts. I believe that many of us have tackled this question since the dawn of movies with sound. How are we special? Well, we are doing something live. How is that different from something recorded? And how is theater different from other live events like a concert, lecture, sporting event, political rally, and so on? What it comes down to, Alfreds realized, is that in the theater, “one of the groups of people transformed themselves into yet another group of people before the very eyes of their audiences… creating the amazing double reality of being themselves in this performance space at this moment and simultaneously other people in another place at another time; being both here now and there then.” Therefore, he concludes, “The audience and actors shared an act of imagination” (Alfreds 13).
It is this sharing of imagination that actually makes the theater special. Any piece of theater, even the most “realistic” play, requires the audience to participate in that act of imagination. The actors in front of you are both the actors in present time (as a theater production is always in the now), and they are the characters in the time their theatrical world dictates.
He then goes on to tell an inspiring story of the first show Shared Experience created. It was a ten-hour four-part adaptation of Dickens’ Bleak House (which, by the way, makes The Ring Cycle sound like a sitcom.) They performed this in their own clothes, without set, and in basic white lights shared with the audience the entire time. The results (according to Alfreds) were astounding. The audience members were forced to stretch their imaginations, and in a way more akin to reading a novel, were able to bring their own visual worlds to the play. Afterwards, audience members actually complemented the lights, and when Alfreds assured them that there were no light cues, they insisted they had memories of candlelight, chandeliers, fires, gas lamps. This is the power of the imagination.
Alfreds’ story is so inspirational, it is so exciting. I wonder if we could create something like that for our lab? I still haven’t decided exactly how I’m going to tackle this in the lab, but the challenge is incredibly thrilling.

Challenge: Make the audience see something, not with their eyes, but in their imagination.

Step One: Choose a specific visual image (the seashore, a camel, a bloodstain, etc.)

Step two: Create a short performance with the goal of injecting this image into the imagination of the audience.

Notes:

I think one of the things theater has over other art forms/media is that it allows  a group of people, in the same room, the opportunity to use their various imaginations together.

While TV or the Talkies can cut from an apartment complex to a ship at sea, we are limited by what we can actually bring into a theater space.  I think this limiting factor can also be  our greatest challenge and inspiration.

Without showing the audience the thing you want them to see, how close can you get to making them think they’ve seen it?  How do you play on all of their senses to paint a potent picture in their imagination?

Go for it.

Specifics:

Work quick:  Spend roughly 4 hours on creation and rehearsal.

Work small: create a performance that lasts 3-5 minutes.

NEW TO THE LAB- announcing the Micro-Challenge!

Open to all! Show up 30 minutes early for our version of a “Quick Fire” challenge.   30 minutes to create a 1 minute response to a challenge, on the same theme,  announced at 7pm.

LAB 6

March 2

7pm- Micro-Challenge Announced!

7:30- Showing begins!  Discussion follows.

@ the building stage

We actors often tend toward thinking of ourselves first – especially as time ticks away and we get closer to opening a play. We worry about how the audience will receive our work. The basest insecurities creep into our minds… Will they like me? Will I forget a line or a prop? And it’s this self-consciousness that pushes us further away from the foundation that gives us the security to excel as performers. During our first weekend of previews, Blake and Joanie spoke to the cast encouraging us to listen to our partners and not to focus so much on our individual characters. This is the key to freedom on stage. If we are focused on our partner and work to support them in their performance, then we will find a connection that frees us to be in the moment. If we think more about them than we think about ourselves, our mind will work for us instead of against us. We will have much more dynamic and engaging performances if we simply take care of the other actors on stage.

I know I may be stating the obvious here — but sometimes it’s very difficult to access this deeper listening. At times when there are so many nerves in us and costume pieces on us and light and music cues around us – it’s just plain difficult to connect with our partners. But that’s the only thing that will bring us to an exciting performance level. We must be as selfless as we can be. We are what we are because of each other. When we are out there on the boards we need only think of how to help tell the story. We are a single part of a whole. Saturday when we open and for every day of our run – let’s work and listen so that our fellow actors have their best performance ever.

David Amaral made up a little video from footage shot during the first weekend of previews. Take a look at what we’ve been working on for the last six months…and what no doubt will continue to undergo changes and improvements in the next few weeks. Counting down to opening!