Theatre content from Live Design Magazine: Starting before 6pm six nights a week, a line forms on a warehouse-filled street on the far west side of Chelsea in New York City. In a neighborhood long known for its nightclubs and galleries, the eclectic mix of customers, young and old, dressed in business attire, evening wear, and jeans, comes as no surprise, but these aren’t club kids or art connoisseurs. These are guests at the McKittrick Hotel, waiting for their allotted entrance time.
14 comments:
Susan has mentioned this to us in design class quite a number of times when trying to explain something to us, but I have never seen it, nor did I really know much about it. This seems so fascinating, and like the article said, the level of detail and thought put into a performance where every audience member is allowed to touch is just astounding. Sleep no more seems much closer to creating something real rather than creating theatre art that only appears to be real. I just cant wrap my mind around creating something like this. I mean you would literally have to take everything into consideration, weight, texture, smell, anything. This would be an amazing design experience, but now that I think about it, I wonder how much of the pieces were made and how many were just bought out right. That would certainly simplify things, but take away from much of the wonder.
The elevator is such a great tactic for the beginning of the show. It is a completely disorienting environment and it easily allows for the show team to separate theater goers and send them off on their own ways. Once you become separated, and have your mask on, it's almost impossible to meet up. It absolutely encourages the "fortune favors the bold" mantra that the show emphasizes. By sending each audience member out, alone and without any supervision - they successfully encourage everyone to behave without inhibitions.
I find the concept of Sleep No more extremely interesting concept of theatre. As I have stated with early comments I want to study this emerging type of theatre because I find that it has a two strong elements of relationship to the audience. The first one is the it blurs the line of performance and reality. The immersive environment that the audience can explore. The vast environment overwhelms the audience to the point of removing the suspense of belief and replacing it with a new reality. The second element is the alienation effect that Brecht writes about. For some reason the audience member remove themselves from what they experience. I believe this is elevator is what begins this process. This allows times for the audience to get into the frame of mind to experience.
This particular article I think pertains so much to what we learn. Especially referencing Susan's class, we talk a lot about how much space is a part of what we do. We all work to design space to convey a certain feeling, emotion, or story. I think that this type of theatre is also really intriguing; Akiva and I have talked a lot about interactive theatre. I hope I get to go see this before they close, because I find this kind of theatre very interesting. I also like the masks; they too are a medium we use a lot here and are also very symbolic.
I keep hearing about "Sleep No More", and I really hope I can find my way to New York some time soon to go and experience it myself. What this article says about the space and its presence really speaks to me. I'm a big fan of scenery that doesn't simply serve as a background but is able to be the actors' "playground". Seeing performers interact with, rather than act in front of, the set makes a huge difference to me when seeing a performance. This is why I'm so interested in the concept of this show, and I would love to work on this type of production
This is a great example of a very effective collaboration of creative minds, the performers, choreographers, and design team. Utilizing the existing architecture influence to accent the storyline and performance is a very basic technique but sleep no more takes that technique and blows it out of the ordinary.
A question frequently asked in foundations classes (and other design classes) when pitching a production people ask how would we control the audience or do we wish to control the audience. Utilizing the mask and random number i feel is a fairly simple way to effectively separate the audience and give every person a unique experience. Having worked in a haunted house the role reversal of having the audience wear masks and the performers not is confusing but makes perfect sense in this situation. Im curious to hear from the performers side to see what their experiences have been with this show.
When this show came out it was HUGE for obvious reasons and a ton of my friends ran like hell to see this. There have been many takes on this style of theater, the mystery, the interactive qualities, etc, but none seem to do it quite like Sleep No More. I want to acknowledge where this show takes place, in a converted warehouse (nothing like our Antigone). I love the idea of taking unconventional spaces and turning them into theaters. I think a lot of it is taking the audience out of their element and giving them a whole new experience, which is pretty cool.
Like many others I have heard many good things about this performance but it was nice to get a detailed description of it. After hearing more about this I want to see it even more. Besides the performance the space itself seems awesome. I already have an affinity for abandoned buildings so hosting a theater type performance inside of it is very appealing. I also like that it is a multi-level space which makes the space even more interesting.
I have heard a great deal about this show. All that i know for sure is that i absolutly MUST see it. The concept is just great and everyones personal experiences that theyve shared just seem so amazing. Everything that goes into this production is just like designing for the stage only, you cant really cheat andything, and it becomes much more real. The amount of detail in this is insane. I dont know if its something that i would love to work on or hate, be cause of the amount of little things that have to go into it- i think id love working on it.
I agree whole-heartedly with Ariel. The use of the elevator as a portal to the world of the play gives the audience and space and time in which to leave their ideas and thoughts from the outside world and prepare themselves for what they are about to experience. The doors physically close the real world to the audience and then open up a new world to them when they arrive at the destination. I believe it is essential in successfully transporting the audience into your world.
I think I have mixed feelings about Sleep No More. At first look, I think it is amazing. It is a dark world that seems to play with the mind. I find the elevator fascinating because the audience has no idea about what floor they will arrive on. There is no sense of place. Rather the mind fills in the gaps. However, I don't know if it is just my class, but I feel like the whole darkness-evoking-fear-and-the-unknown theme is overused. I keep seeing these dark themes all over the place, whether it be in movies, music, art, or theatre. I wonder if this idea is becoming too common, and therefore, the effect is not as powerful as it was in the past. I don't know if it is just a fetish going on, but I think I'm ready for something different.
I think the idea behind this article is an important one for creative theatre minds to absorb: the environment that a piece takes place in is just as important as the piece itself. It can completely alter the experience and the message of whatever is taking place, and can be a character of the piece itself. The Chosky in particular is often treated as a separate space from what is happening onstage (which is a choice in itself), but sometimes I think that designers forget that they don't have to ignore what the space is, even if it's a traditional proscenium.
I have always wondered just how much of an actual plot this show has. From the sound of this article there isn't much of one. While I think that the idea itself is so incredibly innovative, and it sounds like a visual feast, and I really want to go and all that, I can't help but think how one could apply a similar setting to a theatrical experience without losing the plot. Obviously exploration is a key feature at Sleep No More, but what if you could replace some of the thrill of that freedom with at least allowing the choice of a full-formed plot to follow.
To put together such an immersive experience must take the best attention to detail from the scenic and prop departments. Just that idea alone boggles my mind. I find it interesting how a performance such as this one takes so much from the architecture of a building to create a story. Normally theatre is about transforming a vast space and making an atmosphere, not the other way around, so I think that's an incredibly innovative way to make that building just as much a part of the show as the activity going on in the performance as well.
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