Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Theatre needs an iPod moment
Guardian Unlimited: "In a flurry of meticulously casual announcements and studiedly simply adverts, the iPod has transformed the way we listen to music. We now regularly carry around enough music to constitute a cultural heritage in a piece of moulded plastic and glass the size of a baby's fist. But, even more gloriously than this, we can shuffle."
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2 comments:
It's an odd to compare audience involvement and the iPod "random play" mentality. The internet is really the core of user content contribution thanks to sites like YouTube and Facebook. The problem lies in the fact that theatre has such a short time to work with an audience that it is difficult to plan in that "chance" stage. Television shows like American Idol have an hours and hours to work in audience participation whereas in theatre we have two to three. It does take a considerable amount of improvisation on both the actors part and the technician's to create this sort of spontaneity.
Something similar to the idea of putting theater on "shuffle" is the Neo-Futurists "Too much light makes the baby go blind," which is a series of 30 short acts performed in 60 minutes, with the order randomly chosen by the audience (by shouting out numbers). Some of their acts also involve audience participation, so in some ways, they do what this article talks about. Although the "shuffle" idea doesn't directly relate to audience participation, this article seems to suggest that theatre needs more audience interaction, and to embrace the chance that the audience brings.
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