Thursday, February 27, 2020
Visual Storytelling in Socially Engaged Performance
HowlRound Theatre Commons: I grew up in the former Soviet Union when explicit commentary or criticism on society through verbal means was taboo, if not outright dangerous. Because of this, theatre artists behind the Iron Curtain learned to master the expression of social and political messages through the use of visuals. More than any political text could have, images conveyed the mood and attitude about the political situation. Although the political conditions and theatrical climate have transformed dramatically since then, I am convinced that the use of visuals as a means of expression remains essential in today’s politically and socially engaged theatre.
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This author really likes visual storytelling and has a handful of reasons for that. I definitely agree that non-verbal theater can be way more emotionally effective, but it’s certainly much harder to do than spoken theater. I think the lack of language leads us into a much simpler, more emotional space and that’s certainly why I like visual mediums. This also mitigates language barriers. Because visual theater is also not tied to language, it also leaves room for more complex ideas and emotions to come out that couldn’t be boiled down and described with words. The article is of course discussing how one can effectively convey design through a space like this and I definitely think part of it is just making active design choices. I’ll be interested to see in what way theater will continue to push the bounds of simulating an audience without simply using words. The simpler things are, the more up to our imagination things are, and the closer to home it feels.
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