To some extent, I think we understand how time sculpts theatre; after all, narrative is a byproduct of the time it takes a playwright to build worlds and characters. Less explored, however, is the spatial element of things.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
On the Need for a Technological Theatre
To some extent, I think we understand how time sculpts theatre; after all, narrative is a byproduct of the time it takes a playwright to build worlds and characters. Less explored, however, is the spatial element of things.
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Maybe it is just me, but why does everything we do have to include the latest and greatest cutting edge technology? Today I find that most the theater that I see is centered around creating a spectacle instead of focusing on what the best and most effective way to tell a story is. Sometimes the play requires us to use this fancy new technology, but more often than not I get a feeling in my gut that maybe the super cool automation or the very meta media is unnecessary to the storytelling that is supposed to be happening on stage. These are not the only items that fall into this category, but they are the too most frequent. Also, most of these items make the production more complicated than it needs to be. Is it too much to ask to do things the old school traditional way?
I do agree with Jason that the use of technology on stage nowadays often falls in the trap of being simply the "eye candy," which sometimes distracts from storytelling rather than enhance it. That is exactly the challenge that Zachary Small tries to address in this article. He points out, "Technology as a subject itself is played off as a visual supplement or magic trick." However, in this digital age, technology has become not only a tool but an unescapable theme in our daily life. Therefore, so many people are experimenting with new technological approaches to tell new stories, or to tell old stories from new perspectives. Technology is unique to this age, so it is a necessary topic for theater productions that want to represent the ideological state of our generation. This is a challenging process because technology as a language is very different from other forms of expression that we are accustomed too. Conceptual writers have long experimented with technological manipulation of language, but in many cases got stuck or failed due to the close-minded assumption that technology is just a tool. But in theater, there is still infinite potential for experimentation.
Theatre is really struggling with this whole "internet" thing. I feel very torn about some parts of the technological integration of theatre and unnecessary camp. I'm gonna be honest, if I sit down in a theatre and get told to go download an app onto my phone, I groan internally. The most important part of technologically supporting your production is total integration, just the way lighting and sound has been integrated. I'm sure when electrical dimmers first were introduced they were loud as hell and distracting. Bad sound design can kill a show. Just like how a production that's trying to use media in an interesting way can ruin it by having an audience feel it is unnecessary. If I don't buy the trick from the beginning, it will distract me the rest of the show, and I will not become fully involved. That's the fine line - using technology to SUPPORT the story, not to distract from the story.
Theatre doesn't need technology. Good theatre doesn't need technology. It's very possible to product a spectacular, moving play outside in the woods. With no technology. Technology can help tell the story, but I believe that it should only be integrated as a way to implement a certain design, rather than to "look cool." Often, things that look too cool end up distracting the audience from the story you're trying to tell. Does the scenery in a play about the Civil War need automation to move? If you're trying to make the play feel very natural and intimate, maybe not. Maybe people can move the scenery. Theatre is one of the more conventional art forms. You can't just shove 2016's latest and greatest into a show and expect it to work. In some cases, 2016's latest and greatest might be an extraordinarily valuable tool to help you tell the story of the play. But it's just that: a tool. Technology is nothing more than a tool (and a powerful one). Even if you have a media-driven, modern show, technology is still a tool in that it's being used for a particular end. That might change over time. Maybe theatre will go completely VR one day. But until then, it's wise to choose the technology in order to support the design, not the opposite.
Did Tina, Dick, Anne, and Joe co-publish this article? Cake Everyday offered a lot of insight into how to tell an interesting story. This article focuses specifically on telling a special story in relation to technology and theater. But I feel that the theater industry is not just struggling with how to tell stories that focus on and around technology. I think the theater community is struggling with the ever changing times of our people. Theater is this awesome, magical thing that happens between people on-stage and people (most often in seats) in the audience. There is a give and take that happens an exchange that can only fully be appreciated by both parties giving their full attention. Technology and its ever-growing place in our world is blowing open the walls of our industry. It is pushing us forward into the future, but also posing serious issues when it comes to story telling.
The living room play is interesting because it focuses on realism but representing our life on stage. But our lives aren't just in a living room now, in fact, they aren't just in any physical space now. They are everywhere physical and in these virtual spaces that we can never actually touch. SO how do we include this in the theater? How do we successfully put forth relevant and evocative theater? Media, I think is a step in the right direction. But I also feel that we have to sit down and continue the conversation of technology in our world and its places on our stages. Before we can do what's next we have to figure out what we are even dealing with.
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