The Creators Project: There’s a lush, tropical paradise in a nondescript warehouse off the Jefferson Stop in Bushwick. Inside, beautiful people wait to welcome visitors with chili spiced sangria and flower garlands. There’s sand on the floor and sex in the air, but this is not Brooklyn’s newest surf-themed cocktail bar. This is The Grand Paradise, an immersive theater-dance experience from the fanciful and inventive artists of Third Rail Projects.
4 comments:
I feel like this show would be incredibly entertaining to experience but also kind of exhausting (both for the performers and the audience). A show that requires such a heightened degree of immersion and interaction with the "other side" of the stage (ie, the performers interacting with the audience and vice versa) must be more intense but also more mentally and physically taxing. I personally would love to see something like this, however, because of the sense of suspended reality that the article mentions. To trasport yourself into the mentality of a character you are watching on stage is one thing, but being able to actually follow and talk to the characters is something else entirely. I think it's interesting to discuss how (or if) this fits in with the definition of "theater": while this is clearly a performance, it seems to transcend that boundary and almost create a new medium. Even immersive theater doesn't seem to fully encompass this kind of performance art, because the audience chooses what their experience is.
With the way the entertainment business is moving this kind of show is the start of many. People and audiences are looking for experiences for entertainment more than anything else, which is way places like "Sleep No More" are doing incredibly well. Although I think this kind of performance would hold little interest for older generations, this is the kind of theater and art that the younger generations are attracted to the most, because it is interactive. The way our world is with technology and the internet everything is interactive, so a show where you are moving around and interacting with the performers and space is going to be a much more interesting time for younger people. I would be very interesting in seeing a performance piece like this, and I think the creators have it right when they said they want it to be something different that may make some uncomfortable because it creates conversation.
The Grand Paradise falls into the same category as Sleep No More for me. It’s the kind of show that I think sounds incredibly fun to work on but I don’t know I would actually want to go see it. On one hand it sounds interesting and well done, but on the other hand I hate being put on the spot and my constant inner monologue of variations on “oh please god don’t ask me to do something” would probably distract me somewhat from the actual show. That happens to me for even the most minor of audience participation. Now its possible that since these shows aren’t set up as traditional theater and whatever the audience ends up doing isn’t on stage that I might end up being perfectly fine with it but I have my doubts. That being said if there was ever going to be something that gets me over my intense stage fright/aversion to being on stage it would be some kind immersive theater like this or Sleep No More.
This, in my opinion, is just another variation on the experiences that theater can often its audience. Because that’s what today’s audience want from theater, they don’t just want entertainment, they can get that for much cheaper from movies or online videos. This kind of immersive live performance offers the audience something that no other genre can. Through-out the article this piece is referred to as “like virtual reality” and an “escape.” Unlike the other commenters I wasn’t familiar with the popularity of this kind of theater, I had never heard of Sleep No More until it was mentioned a couple days ago in my foundations class. The only time I had heard of this kind of theater was a piece my friend Ben Phillips was putting on at his theater in Seattle. At the time I thought it sounded strange, and interesting, and I wished I could experience it. I’m glad that this type of theater is spreading because I think it is fascinating and I would love to work on a piece like this.
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