Friday, November 19, 2021
‘An Assembly’ Builds a Play in Portland with 12 Strangers and a Stack of Notecards
Portland Monthly: One by one, ushers lead us into a spartan, fluorescent-lit room at the old Zidell shipyards. In the OHSU gym opposite, tiny figures jog on treadmills. Evening traffic on the Ross Island Bridge hums dully in the background. There’s a table for our belongings, a rack for our coats. Twelve black chairs form two rows. On each seat rests a notecard
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8 comments:
Generally, audience participation makes me nervous and uncomfortable but I like the way they approach it for this piece. Rather than it being a small part of the overall production, it is the main focus. I would actually really love going to see and be part of this if they expanded it to a tour or if other companies decided to do it. It's a difficult and interesting experiment they're conducting because like they said, it's hard to guide people into doing what you want and expect once you leave them alone to their devices. I was surprised that someone had literally set the script on fire though, that seemed rather extreme even if you're not particularly enjoying yourself. I would assume that woman knew how participatory this was when she decided to come so that attitude is kind of unexpected. I enjoy the idea that this piece grows a sense of community between strangers through questions and activities of varying difficultly and intimacy.
As an audience member, I think that audience participation is neat. As a stage manager, I find it an interesting challenge. When I was an actor, I dreaded it. I have acted in a show with minimal audience participation and have stage managed a show with minimal participation. The show that I acted in, the audience participation determined the ending of the show and the show I stage managed, it didn't have any effect at all.
I think that this is a really interesting experiment especially after hearing how this series started and how it's evolving with the pandemic. It really shows how far we've come in the past 18 months when it feels like we haven't made any progress. At first we could just talk to loved ones on the phone, then we could see people behind plastic shields or windows, and now we can gather while masked in rooms with people. I am interested to see how far this piece goes and how it evolves as it travels across the country.
I find my taste for these shows to be from my own “outside” perspective to be inconsistent. Sometimes they can hit me and sometimes it seems totally contrived. I think to some extent it requires not only the right group of people, but for me and everyone to be in the right state of mind. A good state of mind to experience the show, but not necessarily the correct one, merely one that aligns with the intentions of the show, and I wonder if this was consistent throughout the other p=erformances during the show, or if it was limited to that effect during the one night. One aspect of theatre that this made me consider was the aspect of bringing the show outwards, the line was blurred there for the audience members as they interacted with each other but did it build meaningful connections or actions or thoughts forward after they left that space? From the article it said some level of comfort and intimacy was built but it did not sound like anything happened with it. That question, primarily that focus on establishing connection, is something that I intend to continue to explore moving forwards.
I think this is a very interesting concept – audience participation in a show is usually very limited. I can only think of one theatrical show I have seen in which an audience member gets involved, as well as a handful of shows from Cirque du Soliel and magic shows. But this – An Assembly – is a completely new take which I have never heard of before. The audience is the show. They are the cast, the performers. In a way, performing for not only the other audience members, but for themselves. I feel like this could either be a very fulfilling experience, or a complete failure. I feel like it would be very important for the audience members to know exactly what they are getting into, as if someone is shy or does not want to participate, it will make the experience difficult, if not, impossible. Also, I have to wonder if there is supposed to be a specific plot to the show or if it is more of just an experiential thing. Based on the description given in the article, it seems a bit more like the latter. Regardless, I still think this is a very cool concept and I would love to see it explored more.
This feels more like an immersive experience type of performance rather than a performance performance. Usually, when people say audience participation, I think of magic shows. Clichéd asking audience members to come up, hold something in their hand or get sawed in half or think of a number between one and three thousand and ten. This seems fun, even though I do not think I would be one for it. It is nice that there are notecards provided. I think, As long as audience members are aware of what they are to be participating in, it should be a very fun experience. I am glad the author found the experience to be inquisitive and not invasive, as theatre should often be. I could totally imagine this type of performance being pitched during Playground. This is exactly the sort of innovative theatre that would crop up in our wonderfully creative student festival.
I remember reading an article that a professor gave to me because I was just having a conversation about what I thought theater was especially because this discussion was being made during the pandemic, where theater took on a whole new meaning. And I think one of my takeaways from that is that it’s very broad, and our definitions of theater can change a lot but, the basics of theater is audience performer. So I think it’s interesting how this piece of theater was able to make the audience a performer. Personally for me I like being an audience member, I don’t like audience participation that much because it gives me anxiety, but I do love the idea of having the audience be a part of the theater, because it really immerses those people into the show in a way that a simple audience/performer relationship would never be like. I think it’s good to experiment with all sorts of theaters and I like the intimacy of this kind of approach. But it definitely has to be used well, which I think this particular piece does.
Like the article mentions, I know of so many people who would shy away from anything involving audience participation. Honestly, I might as well. Regardless, I believe there is value in understanding how certain ones work, and why they resonate with people. This could teach us something about how to approach standard, scripted theatre. Or even how to make a really cool Playground piece that inspired peers. Anyway, I think a strength and requirement of a piece like this is to keep the group small, but not so small that people feel like they can't escape the attention of others. The portion about asking questions that could connect people feels very much like a "step forward" exercise we have used to bring our Design and Production class, and the one below us, together as a whole. I've heard mixed opinions about this one, but generally a positive response, that reveals people want to share, and want to be around others that share as well.
Ok so, I have many thoughts on this. I understand that this is very carefully planned out and there is staging and all, however this makes me question, what is theatre? Because honestly to me this doesn’t really feel like theatre, it feels more like performance art. There are no trained professional actors and for some reason that is a separation to me. It sounds as though the cards led the people through a series of progressively deeper and deeper ice breakers. The other thing is this mention of audience participation and how it can be “risky.” but here- audience is everything. So if the audience doesn’t work, nothing works. And with the writers/directors not being in the room there's no one to guide the audience. It is an interesting question- what are they trying to say with this show- that I hadn’t thought of until the comments of the dust bowl came up.
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