The Brooklyn Rail: In early 2026, I pitched “a story on theater companies from the early 2000s.” This long and overdue history is long and hard to summarize, but let me try. (Book coming later…)
This desire started with seeing TIME PASSES (for Ellen Brody) by The Goat Exchange as part of the Exponential Festival this past January. I expressed delight that they were a company making shows in a way that is less frequent these days (collaborative, weaving together impulses and influences, not necessarily narrative), leading me to then think of other companies making shows “these days” who I also follow and revere
6 comments:
It is always so assuring to hear about theater that is still pushing the limits of what live performance can be. Especially with Broadway being an exhibit of polished and thematically static performances, where new radical ideas rarely have the man onstage, I love learning about theater that is pushing the envelope. In this article I thought the writer did a very effective job at communicating his experiences in each theater and how they were each developing new pieces. This article served as an important reminder of what theater can be, and an art form that has the potential to challenge and comment on ideas and prejudices that exist in the world. I hope that sometime in my artistic career, whatever it may look like, I have the opportunity to work in theater spaces such as these and challenge my own creative outlook in order to create new, powerful, and insightful work.
This was a really thoughtful essay. I love how the author took something that really impacted them and interviewed the creators, paid homage to their Journey, and also acknowledged their downfalls and who took their place. I am a big fan of experimental theater, and the theater companies mentioned in this are fantastic leads to reach out to in the future. I found it particularly inspiring the emphasis the author placed on the value of spaces. They went into detail about the hole in the wall (or ceiling) these companies rehearsed and performed in. And wasn't anything grand, but having a space with rules as simple as clean up after yourself, allowed for profound experimentation. One day I want to create those spaces for other artists and companies, and maybe make a company of my own. Also the details of the shows that they mentioned were wild: food and nudity and performing with eyes closed, it was chaos.
I thought this article was really interesting! As a whole, I find the concept of experimental theatre to be really intriguing to me; the way that it pushes so many boundaries, creates so many new techniques, and exposes so many new people and actors and ideas to the world is really cool, and doing it all in the name of ‘art’ is even better. I think it’s a really important part of the greater theatre ecosystem; experimental theatre is a good way to expand the field by showcasing new pieces, technical aspects, and styles, and it helps theatre to grow as a whole. The first example of experimental theatre I thought of was immediately the Wooster Group, as their work was really impactful to me and made me think about how we view ‘classic’ shows. As a whole, I really enjoy experimental theatre, and I really appreciate the fact that it’s beginning to get more attention!
What I took away from this article is that I need to go out and see more theater, especially experimental theater. Gaining more perspective on life can improve people and give them a way to better connect to others. A few weeks ago I was reading a book about the decline of experimental performances in recent years and how that is such a bad thing for theater in general. For those interested, the book is ‘Theatre of the Unimpressed’ written by Jordan Tannahill. I think a big part of that is that we haven't taken enough time to look back at what we have done in the past as a community and how different performances had different impacts on their audiences and even on their performers. I think that the most unusual performances are often the ones that give people a new perspective on life and the world around them.
I love that these theatre companies are getting the praise they deserve! one of my favorite things about theatre is how they can push the mould and make people feel things in a way that they wouldn't be able to get from a movie or tv show. Being there in person and getting confronted by the acts right in front of you is so different from seeing things on a screen, which most people have gotten desensetized to. Big musicals are important but I think these shows are the most important in theatre, as they really embrace the message and experimentation that some of the bigger shows lack. I believe every theatre fan and designer should have to see this type of show at least once, because it really changes how you can see the scope of what theatre can do. I find these similar to Wooster group, where they do really weird stuff to grab the audience attention
I thought this article was really interesting because it shows a completely different side of theatre than what most people are used to seeing. I usually think of theatre as more traditional productions, but since coming here my view of theatre has expanded greatly, and I believe that I’ve become more open-minded towards all sorts of shows. Therefore, it was really cool to read about companies that were willing to try weird and unconventional ideas. I’m interested in Radiohole and how they used technology and random objects as such a big part of their performances. I also thought it was interesting how much these companies depended on having their own spaces to create and experiment. It made me realize how important smaller, regional theatre companies are because they can take risks that bigger productions (such as Broadway) might not be able to. I really enjoyed this article because it shows how audiences need to branch out outside of their comfort zone when it comes to shows, and how certain companies were created for this experience.
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