Friday, December 02, 2016
Greg Allen pulls ‘Too Much Light’ from Chicago’s Neo-Futurists
www.timeout.com: Greg Allen, the founder of the Neo-Futurists, dropped a bombshell Wednesday afternoon, announcing in an emailed press release that he intends to revoke his former company's rights to perform its flagship show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, and relaunch it himself as a more activist endeavor—an announcement that took the Neo-Futurists themselves by surprise.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
This is a production I had heard about while I worked in Chicago this summer but never got the chance to see. I agree that the idea of micro-theatre can be one of the most effective forms of social commentary, but ending the current run so as to make it more political seems to be vaguely problematic. Part of what seems to be so smart about Too Much Light is the fact that diehard fans can scream the plays they want to see, and first-time viewers will have to just go along with it, like a sort of choose-your-own adventure story, which is uncommon in theatre. As such, the political messages will hit a lot harder, as you don't go in expecting them, which will drive you to think more about their place in the story and why the playwrights chose to include that specific message in the repertory. That being said, by reworking the company to have it be composed of people who have been disenfranchised is a valuable way to give voices to people who don't typically have them, especially because this production is such an attraction. I think the creator might have had more of a discussion about it as opposed to just revoking the rights, but it is coming from a place of activism, so I can't really fault him for that.
However admirable the playwright’s intentions may be this was without a doubt, an ugly action. As somehow who holds all the cards in this situation, there was no reason he needed to make this a surprise to people he had been in good faith negotiations with for a year. He just had to tell them his intentions – there’s nothing they could have done to stop him. I can’t help but feel the manifesto was, in part, written as indictment of and personal stab at his former company, who, I gather from the phrasing of this article, asked him to resign or forced him out. The company themselves state in their rebuttal that they have often had “artistic differences and irreconcilable personal conflicts.”
Maybe this is asking too much or maybe I have rose-colored glasses on, but I think personal ugliness really undermines political idealism. Simply put, I don’t believe the ends justify the means (or the way you behave.) It would be hard for me to see this production without feeling it was a little bit tainted.
This move seems incredibly counterintuitive. I have heard legend of Too Much Light and its incredible impact. Too Much Light is like a right of passage in politically active theatre. To hear that it is being shut down is disheartening to hear. I could understand if the creator shut it down because the ensemble was completely going against what he ended it to be. That does not seem to be the case here. It seems as though the playwright pulled the show due to his dislike of the ensemble. I understand that theatre has politics of its own, but this does not seem to be the best move for keeping politically active theatre alive and mobilized.
I cannot criticize the playwright wanting a more diverse ensemble. That is an incredible move. I just think that a better solution could have been found than pulling the rights of the show from the Chicago ensemble.
The Neo-Futurists’ “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind” was the first interactive/ experimental theater experience I’d ever heard of, when I was in high school. While I haven’t seen any of their shows in person, I did a project on them and watched a bunch of the youtube videos of the performances. I remember thinking how cool it was that they brought random audience members onto the stage to “act out” through the direction given to them over headset. It gave me an entirely new perspective on what it meant to be a performer vs. audience member, and on what a “show” could be. The fast pace of the TMLMTBGB shows was very intriguing, because it automatically made the material feel that much more important and urgent. I think it’s very admirable that the show’s founder wants to take this inspired format and use it to combat fascism in this post-election America. I think we are all left to wonder how our art can make a difference in making sure his hateful ideals continue to permeate and shape our society as little as possible. However, I have to think that it goes deeper than just that considering the fact that he only took away the rights to the show from the Chicago-based group. From what I could see it seemed that the company already put a lot of emphasis on ethnic,LGBT and gender diversity.
Post a Comment