Monday, October 24, 2011
'Hamlet' On An Elevator? The Bard Gets A New Venue
NPR: Wearing suits and somewhat harried expressions, veteran actors Michael Rothhaar and Tony Pasqualini blend right in with the lunch crowd of this Los Angeles office building. As they head into the packed elevator, Rothhaar and Pasqualini jockey for a spot in the back. When the doors close, that's their cue.
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13 comments:
This is so cool. I have these friends at home that would do improvised theater all over the place. The piece I remember the best was in a shopping center and it had an epic spoon battle with dramatic deaths. The best was that this group of musicians were also preforming on that day and so the two groups teamed up and the performance was accented with guitar and harmonica. The unassuming people who become the audience either don't really get it or get really into it and fallow you around for hours. But the police really don't like public theater, I can't really figure out why it's not really hurting anyone. but if your trying to do it just from the police.
This is really excellent. It's awesome when people are daring enough to take both themselves and their audience outside of a certain comfort zone and perform, well, anywhere. In Boston (and I think this happens in multiple cities across the US), there is a troupe called Improv Everywhere...they perform scenes as well as host larger events that anyone is welcome to join in on. While these events entail things such as riding the subway with no pants on and this article is about Shakespeare, it is basically the same premise. It's about bringing theatre, or just any other form of entertainment, outside of where it is conventionally seen and into the world.
I enjoy impromptu (or impromptu-seeming) theater, but the hard part about it sometimes is determining when it's actually happening. Walking around CMU, or especially in Purnell, you start to become desensitized to things like that by all of the performers working on parts or the like. When you see people performing all of the time it starts to become a part of the background noise, unless there's more to it (someone asking the audience's attention, an open guitar case or a hat to collect money, etc.) then it's easy for things to go unnoticed.
I love these sorts of events. I find it a fun way to change up people’s lives also and interesting way to incorporate some hidden Shakespeare into peoples lives. They sort of forced the people in the elevator to be there audience. It like “well we are trapped in this little box together so I might as well make you listen to me.” Even though not everyone using the elevator that say understood or realized what was happened it was enjoyable for those who did.
This is marvelous. I wonder if they will do the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet in a two story open mall? That would be great. I can just imagine the characters talking over a railing during the holiday season. I think people will be surprised that they can actually understand Shakespeare when it is performed and it isn't the same as reading a script in a high school class. It must be disheartening to the actors though to forgo applause so often. for a great effort to bring Shakespeare to the masses.
I think this is really cool. Its a great way to make theater more accessible to people. I'm interested in if its just those two actors, or if they have more. It be interesting to see hamlet in an elevator with only two actors to play all the characters in such a cramped place or if they re-arranged it so it could be like a normal conversation in an elevator.
Theatre in found locations is cool, and there is often a cause for creating theatre / performance art in a public place without telling people. Improv Everywhere is a fantastic example of this, and often makes a commentary on society that's useful. Why is it useful to hear this particular scene from Hamlet in the elevator, though? It seems a bit self-indulgent, not unlike last playground's elevator piece. Perhaps it's meant to be a piece about paying more attention to our surroundings, but this article makes it sound arbitrary.
I like this idea. I wonder if I would have recognized that it was Hamlet or even Shakespeare. It makes sense that in LA people would just think they were rehearsing inconsiderately. Our actors do that around campus too. If I was in a CMU elevator at the UC and two people started reciting Shakespeare, I'd think they were acting students rehearsing, not that they were performing. But I guess, like street performers, if they're good and can grab your attention, they'll attract applause no matter where they perform.
This is a pretty cool idea. Since Shakespeare has been done about eight billion times in at least as many ways, it's always exciting to hear about a new concept that isn't just bizarre for the sake of being new. This method of presenting Shakespeare injects unexpected theater into people's everyday life and makes Shakespeare's work seem more accessible to a modern audience. For those who are already familiar with Shakespeare, it would be a delightful surprise to encounter these performances in a mundane environment such a an elevator or shopping mall.
This is such a funny idea. Besides the fact that it's a way to get people to experience performance, it's also a way to see what people will do when faced with something that's uncomfortable. A lot of people will just stare at the floor or look away from the actors. But there will be people who will really enjoy it and appreciate what's goings on right behind them.
Plus I think it's a great way to brighten anyone's day. I know I'd smile after walking out of the elevator.
This is such an awesome project. I think that public theatre is something that we should all be thinking about more and more, especially because our society has become so obsessed with television and movies. Something like this can really change a person's day. They are probably having a much larger affect on people than most people realize. Even if they are just making a few "audience members" days a little bit better by putting a smile on their face, that's a huge deal. I also think this is a really interesting social experiment. I love seeing people's reactions to something when they have no idea what is really going on.
Really cool concept. I think they did a great job at finding a new and innovative way to make Shakespeare more accessible. What I like most is that it's not calling attention to itself. The actors in the elevator speak at a low volume, keeping in consideration that they are in a small space packed with people. The joy of the audience experience is when you unexpectedly pick up on the fact that they are reading Shakespearean lines, and from there their seemingly normal elevator conversation reveals itself as something totally different. One concern however: how many people did this reach? 1 in every elevator ride? It may be hard to determine, but my worry is that most of their efforts are going unnoticed.
I love this idea! It is great to hear about people interacting with the show and it being not only a thing the actors and actresses do. I also love the fact that they are bringing the regular idea of what society would consider to be the norm place for theatre to be done and doing it somewhere that you would think to be odd. I would love to hear even more about this happening.
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