Why do people go to the theatre or attend performance art
pieces? There is something special--
something electrifying--in the air during a compelling theatrical
performance. This is because the
audience and performers share the experience together. Peggy Phelan writes in her article that “…technologies
can give us something that closely resembles the live event, but they remain
something other than live performance…streaming video functions in the way a
still photograph works: it conveys the work but it is not the live event itself”(575). Cinema may move us but live performance,
compelling works, literally change us because we experience it with the
performers…there is a give and take during live performance. During the run of our recent production of
Frankenstein, a woman was moved in the audience when the creature accidently
killed little William. She shouted, “He’s
only a child!”, and Brendan Averett told us back stage that it jarred him and
affected his performance. Another
recent example was during rehearsal.
Nick Erickson was working with Tim and Brendan. As Brendan “threw” Tim over the chaise
lounge, many of the cast members grimaced and audibly reacted to Tim’s
landing. It sounded as if Tim hit his
head on the chaise before he made contact with the ground. Tim looked out into the house and wondered
why we reacted in such a way. He assured
us he didn’t hurt himself. Both performer and artist share what happens in the space.
When I lived in New York City, I was lucky to come across
some comp tickets to see a Wooster Group production, “House/Lights”. I don’t pretend to understand what I saw, but
I cannot forget the experience. It was
an eclectic production of voice overs, sound and special lighting effects,
physical theatre, some intermittent text, moving set pieces, and probably more. Without the performers, the piece would not
have the same effect I don’t think. The
juxtaposition of the performers with the multi-media effects moved me. I felt chilled, aroused, spooked, intrigued,
and even guilty for seeing what was before me.
When used correctly, technology can be an invigorating element to
theatre or performance art, but I don’t believe technology could ever replace
live performance. Even if it does, the
lively spark we experience in the space, those moments from a live performance
will be lost and never experienced…which would be very sad. Phelan goes on to say:
The potential for the event to be
transformed in unscripted ways by those participating (both the artists and the
viewers) makes it more exciting to me…The possibility of mutual transformation
of both the observer and the performer within the enactment of the live event
is extraordinarily important, because this is the point where the aesthetic joins
the ethical. The ethical is fundamentally related to live art because both are arenas
for the unpredictable force of the social event.
Try to articulate your experience during this clip of the
Wooster Group in performance. Then
imagine the event multiplied ten times (x10) since you are not experiencing it live:
The tragic event of 9/11 comes to mind when thinking of a “media-built
experience”. At the time of the
incident, I was still a sophomore in college.
All day, the news stations were playing the recorded footage of the
planes flying into the World Trade Center.
One of our theatre professors rolled out a TV in the lobby for everyone
to watch the footage throughout the day.
The image of the planes crashing and the towers collapsing are still
burned in my head. When I moved to New
York four years later and visited the World Trade Center Memorial, I was moved
by a single steel cross—attached to a cement block--that was left on site from
the rubble. I suddenly remembered all
the news media clips and photographs from the event, the anniversary
ceremonies, and coverage about 9/11 all at once. I’m not sure I would have had
the same reaction without the prior exposure to the live footage. Technology
can be very powerful. I think it can
have a dramatic effect in live performance and should be used smartly. Otherwise, all that will be experienced is
white noise…
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