In preparation for her visit, Natsu began to study the history of Okinawa and learned about the 1970 Koza Riot, which responded to the United States military occupation of the island and the violence associated therein.
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Making Theatre, or Something Else Entirely, in a Pandemic
In preparation for her visit, Natsu began to study the history of Okinawa and learned about the 1970 Koza Riot, which responded to the United States military occupation of the island and the violence associated therein.
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I love the fact that this playwright has the opportunity to actually travel and gain knowledge and research for her play. I wish we were given more opportunities to do that sort of thing. I also love that this playwright took this pandemic in stride because I feel as though so much of the work recently has been uninspiring or falling flat. Natsu Onoda Power’s description of Okinawa Demo Reel feels like an online version of Sleep No More in the way she’s constructed it. I also love that this entire process has been about the process and not the product. We often get too swept away in how the final product should look that we don’t acknowledge the hurdles or changes that occur within a process. I also have been wondering about different countries and their forms of protest. I find this playwright's work really interesting and I’m intrigued to learn more in the future.
I find this article very interesting and loved hearing a playwright's perspective on not only the process but also how the process has changed during the pandemic. The playwright's entire concept changed during her trip to Japan due to the political climate there and it inspired her to not only change the story that is being told but also the medium in which it is being told. Live streaming her experience in Japan and the protests that were happening also opens up the conversation on how we can do theatre during a pandemic. The people watching her live stream still empathized with the people they were watching and were still moved by what was on their screen, showing that live streaming theatre does not mean all the emotions will be erased. It is also interesting that she released a Demo reel after which people still loved and felt moved by even though they are sitting on their couch in the United States. The face that audience can also engage with the performance through comments however are forced to experience this show alone also brings up a new world of possibilities. The pressure to laugh when others are or not laugh when no body else is affects the way an audience member watches and interprets the show, by cutting out this pressure from fellow audience members, a viewer can fully interpret the piece in their own way and allow for more abstract pieces to be viewed completely differently. It will be interesting to see where Natsu Onoda's play goes and the methods it will continue to take to tell an interesting story and keep theatre alive.
) The research and thought that went behind creating this project, that then turned into a “demo reel” is an incredibly thought provoking concept, and one that speaks to how important ground work and research is when developing a new idea. I also think it is interesting to explore the concept of the western/ American western idea of consuming theatre, because we have a very static idea of how you should view theatre which is now being broken down by Zoom theatre, as Natsu states. I think there is also power in seeing artists work and create, which is why Natsu’s quote “Audiences revel in the visible ‘craft’ of the artists, not in the invisibility of such craft to mimic life…” spoke to me a lot, because I think there is more substance in acknowledging that theatre is actually developing and transforming instead of letting it exist in a bubble of perfection. We are all sharing in a collective process as we continue on with productions in this pandemic, and it doesn’t have to be a perfect piece for it to still be impactful and important.
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