Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Stage Magicians: Good for More Than a Few Tricks
AMERICAN THEATRE: Here’s what often happens when people decide they’re going to use magic in a show,” says Teller, the one-named illusionist best known as the silent partner in the duo Penn and Teller. “They get three quarters of the way through the production—they’ve built the set, they’ve blocked everything, and now they go, ‘You know, it’d be pretty good to have magic in here.’ And then they call some hapless person in—and I’ve been this hapless person on occasion—and say things like, ‘We think it would be really nice for him to be standing centerstage and just turn into an elf.’”
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2 comments:
I have always felt that magic is just Improv Theater heightened. Similar to a regular play, magicians have to keep the audience engaged, while also keeping in character. This is seemingly more difficult when you are doing life threatening stunts, but still, magicians and actors to very similar things. I love the idea of making theater based around magic. Much of theater is spent trying to convince people of something that may not be true, and that is pretty much all that magic is. I don’t really see why these plays have to be dark. The point of magic is to have fun and be amazed, while theater is to fell something, hopefully not too depressing. I feel that if you are going to use magic to try and make theater better and more engaging, then you cannot make it dark and depressing. I am sure that there are many more shows that make use of magic in them, but the ones that were talked about in the article do not seem like shows I would like to see.
I think that magic and theatre are a match made in heaven. If it is possible to pull of the trick in the theatre space (which, as someone who knows a bit about magic, I understand is not always the case, it is worth it to pull of the illusion as it brings the audience farther into the world of the play. Just as escapes are more real and exciting than magic tricks (and I’m talking about real escapes or ones that are just pulled off so well no one notices there was a trick to pulling off the stunt), magic that executes the playwright’s vision makes the experience that much more exciting than an actor that, though not supposed to be, is seen holding something to create the illusion of floating. I think it's important, though, that magicians and the people engineering their illusions are told upfront what is expected of them so they can work with the fellow designers from the beginning of the creative process and stop any problems from occurring before they even show up.
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