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Thursday, March 05, 2020
Redefining Dinner Theatre Off Broadway
Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Dinner theatre used to mean audiences enjoyed a meal while watching a show. But over the past few years, a handful of adventurous New York productions have been using food to enhance their stage stories.
4 comments:
Kaylie
said...
Remy from Ratatouille was truly onto something when he paired various fruits and cheeses to replicate the sensation of musical genres like jazz. Theater is now taking a page out of his book and creating dishes after characters and sampler plates after scenes. I think this is a really fun idea which, going back to ratatouille, I think would be most beneficial for music performances. I feel like food, while it can be a unifying force, is a big distraction. I think having these sampler plates created for an orchestra or band concert would be a much more fulfilling experience as there would be little to be distracted from other than the music whereas theater is so intensely visual you can miss so much if you are doing anything else. That said, I think the way dinner theatre is being done now is much better than what was happening before. It limits the distraction and transforms it into something that reflects what is happening onstage.
I love the concept of theatre with food as an experience. Theatre has always been an experience that is so interactive to an extent, and adding this extra layer of experience for the audience I can only imagine how it enhances the overall experience. Food and drink is one thing that every culture around the world can partake in experiencing; language does not have to be a barrier so people can sit and enjoy food. Not so much in my recent live theatre experiences, but at many movie theatres recently, full restaurants or food other than snacks have been added, and to me that is super convenient, but in a live theatre sense when the audience is being served a full meal, that is a whole different experience. I really like how some of the shows are having the food and the serving of it be incorporated into the show and not just an extra element for the audience to enjoy.
Dinner Theatre has always had a weird stigma to me, possibly because the only one I have experienced wasn't of the highest quality in food or in performance. However, I've always wanted the idea to work. My favorite movie theatre growing up was called "Silver Screen" and had long tables in each row for the meals they deliver to you. Focusing in on food elements and not necessarily entire meals is a smart shift in ensuring the food doesn't get in the way of the more significant one: the story. A few of my friends who saw "Waitress" on Broadway commented on the aromas of freshly baked pies alongside mini jarred pies for sale. Drinks and theatre definitely seem to go together as well, but one should consider how it can be a limiting factor in regard to age, and the fact that some just don't drink alcohol. Leaning towards the bar or cabaret feel has the potential of bringing more joy and energy into the space.
My first thought after seeing the title of the article was the movie GoodFellas because I remember when the scene where they went to go see a show with a performance, and everyone sat and watched as they ate dinner with their dates. I think this tradition (if you will) is something really lovely and should definitely be brought back. Instead of dinner and a movie, dinner and a show sounds so much more appealing, especially in forgein places for when people go on vacations. When I was little, I remember on vacations we would always see a show of some sort by the end of the night, and I remember those performances so vividly because it made an entire event of the night but adding a show at the end of it. I think it's a perfect way to keep people engaged during a performance and increase the relaxation factor of seeing a show.
4 comments:
Remy from Ratatouille was truly onto something when he paired various fruits and cheeses to replicate the sensation of musical genres like jazz. Theater is now taking a page out of his book and creating dishes after characters and sampler plates after scenes. I think this is a really fun idea which, going back to ratatouille, I think would be most beneficial for music performances. I feel like food, while it can be a unifying force, is a big distraction. I think having these sampler plates created for an orchestra or band concert would be a much more fulfilling experience as there would be little to be distracted from other than the music whereas theater is so intensely visual you can miss so much if you are doing anything else. That said, I think the way dinner theatre is being done now is much better than what was happening before. It limits the distraction and transforms it into something that reflects what is happening onstage.
I love the concept of theatre with food as an experience. Theatre has always been an experience that is so interactive to an extent, and adding this extra layer of experience for the audience I can only imagine how it enhances the overall experience. Food and drink is one thing that every culture around the world can partake in experiencing; language does not have to be a barrier so people can sit and enjoy food. Not so much in my recent live theatre experiences, but at many movie theatres recently, full restaurants or food other than snacks have been added, and to me that is super convenient, but in a live theatre sense when the audience is being served a full meal, that is a whole different experience. I really like how some of the shows are having the food and the serving of it be incorporated into the show and not just an extra element for the audience to enjoy.
Dinner Theatre has always had a weird stigma to me, possibly because the only one I have experienced wasn't of the highest quality in food or in performance. However, I've always wanted the idea to work. My favorite movie theatre growing up was called "Silver Screen" and had long tables in each row for the meals they deliver to you. Focusing in on food elements and not necessarily entire meals is a smart shift in ensuring the food doesn't get in the way of the more significant one: the story. A few of my friends who saw "Waitress" on Broadway commented on the aromas of freshly baked pies alongside mini jarred pies for sale. Drinks and theatre definitely seem to go together as well, but one should consider how it can be a limiting factor in regard to age, and the fact that some just don't drink alcohol. Leaning towards the bar or cabaret feel has the potential of bringing more joy and energy into the space.
My first thought after seeing the title of the article was the movie GoodFellas because I remember when the scene where they went to go see a show with a performance, and everyone sat and watched as they ate dinner with their dates. I think this tradition (if you will) is something really lovely and should definitely be brought back. Instead of dinner and a movie, dinner and a show sounds so much more appealing, especially in forgein places for when people go on vacations. When I was little, I remember on vacations we would always see a show of some sort by the end of the night, and I remember those performances so vividly because it made an entire event of the night but adding a show at the end of it. I think it's a perfect way to keep people engaged during a performance and increase the relaxation factor of seeing a show.
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