The most interesting point I took from our latest readings was one I almost read right over. I got through a few more words, paused, shook my head and reread. Yes, I’d read it right, and it said:
Design the performance with the idea that, as with a sporting event, the spectators should come away with it full from it full of opinions about what they have seen. “I didn’t have to be that way!” “She should’ve done this!” “He could’ve done that!” “If he’d only…” “Well he was up against…” “Did you see that one time, the way she dealt with the…” “You know what I would have done if it were me…”
Isn’t this true? I know that every time my dad’s football team had a bad game, he’d come home listing off dozens of things they could have done better. It hadn’t occurred to me that it’s possible to do the same thing with theatre. Make the audience think, “You know, if I’d been in that position, I would have solved that problem much easier.” It kind of reminds me of Boal’s idea of forum theatre, just without the audience actively participating during the performance. Still, they do get the mental stimulation of “How would you be able to fix that?”
But what really captured my attention was the comparison between theatre and a sporting event. We’ve come up with many similarities between the two (audience anticipation, hours of practice, rehearsal/try-outs, etc), but that was one we’d missed. What could we do to provoke that kind of reaction in our audience? I feel like we should try to make our target audience relate to the play so much, they feel like they were the inspiration for one of the characters (which, in this case, may be true!).
It seems to me like theatre doesn’t really do that often. Maybe because, while a sports game can be wild, unpredictable, random and suspenseful, theatre seems more static. If you’ve read Othello, then go see it performed, you know how it’s going to end. No matter what was cut or who the actors are, (SPOILER ALERT) Othello is still going to smother Desdemona and Iago will still stab his own wife. On the other hand, which players are playing and which plays they use can greatly affect the outcome of a football game, basketball game, etc.
I’ve certainly never walked away thinking, “You know, if I was Desdemona, I would have just stayed awake and explained the whole thing to Othello.” Why? Shakespeare is old and it’s been read and performed thousands, maybe even millions of times, it’s practically its own tradition! What’s there to change? But a sports game is now, it’s in the moment, and it’s different every time. Even if the same two teams play each other and the same team wins, all the plays won’t be the same, the final score will be different, etc.
I hope that, in creating something brand new that’ll hopefully be exciting for our audience; we can create those same feelings in them that a game would. I also wonder if our big focus being on sports will affect that at all… Whether it will or not, I definitely want us to try and infuse that kind of hype and excitement from sports into our piece.
During my interview with Schutte, he mentioned something to the effect of: The narrative of theatre is self-contained, while the narrative of sports happens before and after the game. Think of it this way: During a sport practice, like football, for example, the players will learn their drills, practice their techniques, and every time, they will end the same, much in the way as a theatre performance. Conversely, during rehearsals, every person in the room has an opinion or two about how the scene should be structured, where each and every charater should move, how the actions should be portrayed. They're really the same, just with diffrent narratives.
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