Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Philip Santos Schaffer pulls back the curtain and introduces himself as "your server and savior" to me and the only other spectator. After chatting idly for a while, he asks if we're thirsty. "Tonight, we're serving only the finest NYC tap," he declares as he turns on the faucet and water comes pouring out. Forget the fourth wall -- there's not even a stage for this solo show because The End of the World Bar and Bathtub is performed in a real New York City bathroom. Interested audiences of two make an appointment and supply the tub; Schaffer shows up and delivers the hour-long experience.
8 comments:
I would have never thought I would be interested in letting a stranger use my bathtub but this experience sounds really fun and interesting. It makes me happy to see that the art of performing can take on such a unique form and provide such an interesting experience. I like what the article says about how WalkUpArts wanted to provide a theater experience in which people get the opportunity to make eye contact. When theater invites the audience into the world or even invites itself into the world of the audience, it changes what the audience sees as art. I think this experience is a great start to building a closer relationship between the theater's audience and the message a piece is trying to convey. I am interested in hearing what this theater company has to come.
The End of the World Bar and Bathtub, written and performed by Philip Santos Schaffer, is a one man show performed in front of a two person audience. All three, intimately sharing the space of one bathroom. One would think that the lack of a standard stage would limit and would denounce its credibility as a live performance, but I feel after reading Have you Ever Seen a Show in a Bathtub, by Jonathan Mandell, I’m convinced the opposite. It exceeds the real time possibilities in regular theatre, the show adaptable to any possible change, what could be just a monologue becomes dialogue between Philip and the audience. Philip points out ‘"There have been nights when audience members have gone from not talking to me at all, to having long, deep conversations with me,", so every night is guaranteed a different experience.
What Bathtub really brings is intimacy unlike most standard theatre, by creating “ a space for people to make eye contact,"
Generally, when you think of a show, you think of something like ‘Les Mis’ or ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ but no one think of one man sitting in a bathtub, let along YOUR bathtub, as a show. “The End of the World Bar and Bathtub” is an interactive experience where audiences set up an appointment with this performer to come sit in their bathtub, and there he goes on to play a character that spends all of his time in the bathroom, asking the audience questions. But because it consists of a conversation between him and the audience, every show is a different experience. While some some would definitely say that this doesn’t count as a real show, since there isn’t the conventional lighting, professional sets or designers, it does exactly the job that theatre is supposed to do. It tells a story and makes people think. The setting is very intimate, and even uncomfortable, but not in a harmful way. He makes people reflect on themselves and ponder things they probably don’t often wonder about. Like it says in the article, the way he performs creates a space for people to make eye contact. While I have never once thought of wanting to let some performer I don’t know sit in my bathtub for an hour, I am incredibly curious as to what this experience would be like, and how I would feel coming out of something so unique and unheard of as this. I’m also curious as to the new places this industry will lead us to in the upcoming years.
This is incredible. At first I thought that the set is just one giant bathtub in a theatre. But nope I was wrong and I am so glad. The audience has to pick a time and is performed for just two people. This is such a great idea. In 2018 more and more theatres and shows are trying to be immersive. Very few shows end up being immersive and just end up being that the actors just walk into the audience. I think that that Natsha and Sweeny Todd and Sleep No More have done really well with immersive theatre. One troubling thing about this article is that the author lives in a bathtub. , “who lives in the bathtub 24/7 because "the world is ending soon and this tub is the only place to survive." This is very odd for someone to be living in a bathtub but if he enjoys it who am I to judge.
I have to admit I was a bit skeptical of this after seeing the headline, but after reading through the article, I have to say my opinion has changed. Philip Santos Schaffer's comment at the end of the piece was what really convinced me. He states, "There have been nights when audience members have gone from not talking to me at all, to having long, deep conversations with me," Schaffer says. "The more we do the show, the more I learn how comfortable I have to get with letting go of my preconceptions of what is 'supposed' to happen in order to embrace what is actually happening. Every time we do the show, it is a totally different experience." To me, that is why theatre and live performance is so engaging and special. Of course we have a script and blocking and all of that, but each performance should be a different experience as each performance will have a different audience. I am quite taken with the idea that this performer has to let go of his own idea of what is supposed to happen and lets it play out in an organic fashion. I think that pieces like this really do have the potential to change people's perception of theatre. It is very accessible and direct, and isn't some stuffy restoration play being performed up on a stage far away. While this might not be right for every audience member or every theatrical piece, I think this idea is more than just an attention grabbing idea, and actually pretty brave and inventive.
While conducting a show in the bathtub may be an intimate production, I can see how it would be incredibly intimidating. That being said, I’d love to have the opportunity to be involved in a show like The End of the World Bar and Bathtub. It’s originality and audience contingency make it different every night and get the audience to think. As Schaffer says, the dialogue between him and the audience opens total strangers up to each other, and isn’t that an important factor of theater? One goal is to be able to build bridges between people who otherwise would look at one another and say, “I don’t have anything in common”. I also see The End of the World Bar and Bathtub as a challenge to the definition of theater. No it’s not a proscenium with five-hundred seats, but it’s a unique playing field where people can learn from Schaffer and each other.
There’s something profoundly personal and intimate about a performance occuring in your own home, in a space that you occupy every single day. By appropriating the audience member’s bathtub, Schaffer has the artistic obligation to adapt to his new environment every single performance. Suddenly a performance is no longer a one-sided consumer-driven experience, but an abstract structure enabling dialogue between strangers. Theatre such as this proves that art for art’s sake is quietly making room for art that intends to disrupt the norm and connect us. I hope that much more of this experimental work will come to be recognized as worthy of publicity and funding as brilliantly creative ways of bringing people together.
It’s difficult coming up with new and innovative things when it feels like everything that could be done, already is somewhere. Though this may be true, we keep hearing different inventions and ideas all the time- a show in a bathtub being one. To someone who loves to come up with something new and is interested in production, I was really curious to see how this show would take its course. I’m familiar with a very finite amount of stage arrangements, but I had never thought of putting an audience of about 3-4 people in a New York City bathtub together for an hour, as a destination for a production. The creativity behind this work is refreshing. Sometimes, people feel the need to forcefully step ‘out of the box’, in order to prove to society that they are different and on to newer and better things. Patterns like this are very evident in the world of fashion as well as entertainment of any kind. Trends are the hardest to set and easiest to follow. “The End of the World Bar and Bathtub” is a show that is extremely intimate and interactive, unlike most broadway shows one would go see with their family. I think the whole point of this show, and something which I admire, is the fact that it is supposed to wake people up. It’s supposed to challenge the audience and not just the performer. It’s particularly fun for Philip Santos, the main and only character played in this show, because every show is like a new experiment and he gets dealt the most random guinea pigs to work with. This show is the kind of show people would remember and look back to. Not many people have been able to say that they spent an hour watching a grown man sit in a bathtub and drink in New York City.
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