Late last night I came out of another world. The world was
wacky, illogical, dangerous, silly, loving…
And completely familiar.
It was a play, my friends perforce of Some Assembly Required
to be exact. Plays take the behavior of art to an extreme. As they enact making
special, the play creators develop an entire world. First there is the theater itself. This space is set aside
specifically for the presentation of visual/ audio arts in western culture. The
stage should fit the play. Gist Hall Theater is small, allowing the audience to
feel as if on the stage itself, preparing them for their role in the play. For
a play to do well, the audience needs to feel connected, and the performers
along with the show techs direct the audience thorough their part. In this
play, the expert use of lighting lead the audience’s eyes so completely that
even with my ADHD, I only looked into the shadows when they wanted me to. Some
Assembly Required presents a satire of Christmas Eve; bringing together the
realistic with the ridiculous presenting us in the audience those paradoxical
moments we react to in art.
Your comment about the lighting guiding your vision reminded me on the way I re-watch movies; I find tend to focus more on the character being talked 'at' rather than who the director intended. This is something theatre has over film; the ability for the viewer to see everything because normally when people watch movies they tend to look at whoever is talking. Light (as opposed to speaking) is the tool theaters use for directing focus.
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