Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Pain and Endurance in barebones productions’ Infinite Life
onstagepittsburgh.com: Playwright Ann Baker‘s Infinite Life depicts a group of five women and a man on a wellness retreat at a fasting facility. They sunbathe on lawn chairs, with only a parking lot behind a bakery in their line of sight.
1 comment:
NeonGreen
said...
This author’s focus on the endurance required to watch the play is really interesting, because I had never thought of that as a strategy in production. I love the idea of the repetition causing an ache in the audience that, even though it is repetitive, literally reflects the repetition that the characters are feeling. It is such an ingenious method of forcing the audience to empathize with the characters. I imagine this creeping boredom that the audience must feel makes them yearn for the characters to snap out of it even more intense. While I have not seen this production, the author points out that the pauses didn;t seem to have their full weight to them, which I think goes along with this need for the play to push forward. I wonder if the director felt a need to toe that line between boredom and interest in fear that the audience would simply view it as a boring play.
1 comment:
This author’s focus on the endurance required to watch the play is really interesting, because I had never thought of that as a strategy in production. I love the idea of the repetition causing an ache in the audience that, even though it is repetitive, literally reflects the repetition that the characters are feeling. It is such an ingenious method of forcing the audience to empathize with the characters. I imagine this creeping boredom that the audience must feel makes them yearn for the characters to snap out of it even more intense. While I have not seen this production, the author points out that the pauses didn;t seem to have their full weight to them, which I think goes along with this need for the play to push forward. I wonder if the director felt a need to toe that line between boredom and interest in fear that the audience would simply view it as a boring play.
Post a Comment