Little has been revealed about Bricolage Production Company’s latest immersive, sensory-based theater experience, DODO. Created in collaboration with the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh as part of its Carnegie Nexus initiative, no two experiences are alike.
9 comments:
I absolutely adore immersive entertainment, and to put this immersive theme park style experience into a museum will heighten how patrons view museums. The creative team spent two years alone developing this concept and the way it will be presented and created. Interviewing the people who interact with the museum daily or in different ways was ingenious. The janitors and maintenance being the “keepers” and the “protectors,” the curators being “collectors” makes the entire body and function of the museum more important than the content. It creates a living being, like they are the veins and organs that produce the outer appearance. It seems this is the concept Bricolage is playing with, the idea that the whole museum is one, that “reality vs. fiction” is like upkeep and final product. I will personally go and see this show. It sounds like a truly transformative experience, and I’m really excited to see how they accomplish everything they hoped DODO would be.
I really have little to no experience with immersive theater, but I find the idea of it incredibly interesting. In this case, the depth and field of factors taken into account by the creators of "DODO" indicate a truly unique and immersive experience. The use of lighting as character and the blurred line between cast and audience are particularly fascinating to me. The use of theater as an immersive performance that takes the audience into itself presents endless new possibilities and methods for expression of dramatic ideas. I am tempted to go take a look for myself, as I am hoping to experience immersive theater myself soon- New forms and approaches to theater are important to explore, especially as young drama students hoping to enter the field. In my opinion, understanding the different directions theater is going will be very useful to us as new practitioners in a few years.
This type of show really excites me and I think is a positive indicator that Pittsburgh is catching up with cities like Boston, Chicago, and New York as a standard for theatre. In regard to the theatre scene in Pittsburgh, it seems like Bricolage has really stepped up its game in the past few years, or at least I have been hearing more about their productions. Another exciting thing about this production in particular, is that if I remember correctly, Sarah Pickett was about the innovative sound design that it is a critical part of the show. Having our faculty work on projects like this is really encouraging to students, that they are currently researching what the new trends are and how to bring them into the classroom. I do hope that I get the chance to go see this show and I’m really interested to see how it interacts with the museum.
This sounds like a really interesting museum experience. You usually don't see immersive experiences outside the realm of theatre and in the museum world, so the added layer that all the stuff you are seeing are real, historical artifacts ups the ante on the experience. I also really like that there is no performance part per-se of the experience - that the actors pose as fellow museum-goes so you don't know who you are talking to. It could easily lead to guest to guest conversations that could end up being really fruitful and insightful, which is the whole point. Also the fact that it is a story of human interaction with the world and ends with the extinction of the dodo bird, perhaps one of the most infamously extinct creatures and the subject of continual debate as most specimens were lost or damaged and mystery surrounds the entire story. It’s a really fascinating story that I just spent the past half hour reading up on, and I would love to go experience this production.
The thing that really struck me was the brief mention of the juxtaposition between the roles of museum as protector of artifacts and presenter of artifacts. Often those two jobs are in direct opposition to each other. Exposing art to light damages the paint. Hanging tapestries so people can see them can let them succumb to gravity and fall apart more quickly. People breathing on ancient things can lead them to decay. The very air can start the decomposition process. If items are close enough to see, they might be in danger of someone reaching out and touching them. There is a lot of art theft where art is stolen from its rightful place so that other people can see it.
This two-fold job of museums and museum curators must be a difficult line to walk. It is a very interesting topic and I hope DODO discusses the moral ambiguity surrounding many art and artifacts.
While this seems fascinating and exciting, throughout the article I personally never got a really clear picture of what this experience entailed. You go backstage, you see artifacts, there's things to do with extinction and the human impact on nature, but what is it? Does it follow a specific story that makes it a performance? To me, it sounded more like an immersive tour than a regular immersive theater piece like it sounded like at the beginning of the article. It being sensory-based, while unique and cool when combined with their idea of how humans, also added to that tour-like feel for me. Yes, it's still super cool and I think it has a lot of cool options for what is considered theater and what theater skills can be used for in different careers, but for me it seemed less like a production and more like a backstage experience, however immersive it may be.
I've never seen a Bricolage production, but heard a bit about their approach to immersive theatre. I find immersive productions particularly engaging and exciting to partake in and view, so I think it's fantastic that Bricolage is providing an experience you would likely only find in much larger cities right here in Pittsburgh. I think it's also very exciting for the company to have the backing of the Carnegie Museums of Art and that the experience will actual be taking place within the museum itself, because it creates a sense that the show will draw in people that may frequent the museum but maybe have not yet been exposed to a Bricolage production. I know I'm already interested, particularly because the article mentioned the fact that patrons of the show will be interacting with parts of the museum not generally open to the public. I'm also interested to know how they managed to pull this off logistically, if they will be allowing the public to visit parts of the museum that are generally off limits, and how they are working with the museum to still ensure that the museum's security is paramount.
I’ve read this article three times and have not got a better clue of what I’d be getting into. The story is about extinction, “un-natural” selection, and it will be an immersive adventure. Everything else is such a mystery. I think the production team and the museum intentionally release very limited pieces of information to intrigue patrons. And to be honest it works – I’m very hooked myself and want to be immersed in this journey. From the way the article describes “DODO”, it only allows 6 people at a time, it will play to senses (all senses I assume?) and there will be virtual reality sound and light effects. On the website of Bricolage production company, it asks patrons to sign an acknowledgement and assumption of risk before the experience begins. Oddly it does not mention how long this experience will be. Although considering that the ticket price is not cheap at all and only 6 people are allowed for each session, it may take up to 2 hours and perhaps the staff at the museum need to reset and prep for the next group.
Just by reading this article, I really want to see DODO. I have never been to an immersive theater experience before, but it sounds like a powerful experience. As a new experience, I am simply interested in experiencing that world and looking at it both as a theater student and an audience member. I am always intrigued by how theater deals with audience interaction. In addition, I noticed that Sarah Pickett was involved with the project, that just further intrigues me as to what work the the CMU faculty is putting out.
Aside from the mechanics of the piece, I am really intrigued about the story of the piece and just from this article alone I feel as though I need to see this production. I love theater that makes me think about the world I live in, it’s one of the reasons I do theater so I am particularly interested in how the play prompts the audience.
Post a Comment