Breaking Character: Here at Company One Theatre we talk a lot about community outreach and engagement. As a self-identified “theatre for the people,” we constantly strive to cultivate new audiences and break the boundaries of what theatre can be. Oftentimes, this means thinking beyond the scope of traditional theatre spaces when staging plays, and our most recent season marked historic strides in cross-functional relationships between theatre and other cultural landmarks in Boston. Much of our programming took place beyond the walls of the theatre: In an art museum, for instance, or a gallery.
5 comments:
I love how art can be made so unique in every aspect, even the material used to express it is an artistic choice. I think this is a cool story because this man who saw himself as more mechanically minded saw art in the wire that makes fences and was able to make some very creative pieces. I think the magical quality of fairies is captured well in the tangled wire, giving it almost a hazy/ dreamy quality. The photographs taken of these pieces display them very well. The angle and use of light and dark help to bring the sculptures to life even more than they already appear based on their dynamic poses. I also think it is great that this artist is making starter kits for anyone who wants to try working with this wire. I would like to know if he has interest in working with other materials in the future.
Boston is such a great city. I see so many ways that Boston is trying to support its citizens in ways that other cities don’t seem to do. They have apps for reporting pot holes and there is a general sense of community and desire to help, educate, and interact with each other. This show at the public library is a perfect example of a city funding things that will help its citizens. The topic seems very relevant to the people of Boston. Its populous is, overall, very well educated and concerned with education and competition.
This theatre’s philosophy is so wonderful- that they want to meet the audience where they are and encourage community dialogue. Many theatres’ mission statements have something in them to the extent of bringing art to the public and bringing the community together, but this theatre is taking those goals seriously and changing the way they think about putting on theatre.
Theater in unconventional spaces is so unique. And that is exactly the point of it. Breaking the boundaries of theater by breaking the stereotype of a theatrical performance having to be held in a traditional theater space. Changing the venue can completely change a piece. For this specific article the piece that was performed in a library was being performed for the first time in Boston, therefore there is no convention surrounding the location of the piece so changing the setting doesn't really change the meaning of this piece, but if a more established piece, for example Romeo and Juliet, is performed in an unconventional location, that really changes the piece because people have preconceived notions about the play in regard to the given circumstance of location. Something that I really admire about this theater company is their affordable tickets. Sometimes theater is inaccessible because of the cost of a ticket. Doing the pay what you can tickets it allows more people to be exposed to theater. This is an amazing thing to do because theater should not look like an exclusive art form that is just available to the financially well off, but it should be available to all people so it can spread important messages with the greater community.
I was instantly drawn into this company by the very first paragraph of the article. "this means thinking beyond the scope of traditional theatre spaces when staging plays, and our most recent season marked historic strides in cross-functional relationships between theatre and other cultural landmarks in Boston." The idea of connecting with your community and city in such a physical way is very intriguing. I love that we can produce theatre pretty much anywhere. Sure, producing something outside at a monument might not have all the bells and whistles, but often times theatre is more than just wowing people with a show. By having less materials, that could also lower your costs and perhaps allow these performances to be more affordable and really accessible to the community at hand. Boston seems like a really wonderful arts city, and I would love to get the chance to explore this and other parts of it one day.
This theatre company (Company One Theatre in Boston) and what it stands for sounds very similar to Bricolage Theatre Company here in Pittsburgh. They are very similar in the sense that both theatre companies are almost immersive in nature and seek to push the boundaries of today’s theatre and world. This type of theatre is appearing more and more and I think it’s a great way to showcase new art and develop new ways of creating theatre. The concept of placing a show in a library is truly unique as well, considering the fact that libraries are public spaces, as they highlighted in the article, and the struggles dealing with doing a show of such a nature. Putting shows in actual, physical, real world locations instead of creating a world in a theatrical space is truly an innovative way of bringing the normal world to the elaborate world we develop.
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