There’s an article up at MNplaylist.com by Max Sparber about chaos in theater that (of course) piqued my interest.
A line will be flubbed, or there will be some accident onstage, and suddenly the cast will find themselves winging it. And, with unexpected frequency, these moments don’t hurt a show, but suddenly send an electric charge through it. … In their way, it’s these moments that make live theater genuinely live. We’re no longer seeing actors mostly duplicating what they’ve done the previous performance and the performance before that. We’re seeing them do something they’ve never done before.
I like encouraging people to do things they’ve never done before, or that they want to and CAN do, but feel held back by imaginary concerns (“culture” as the anthropologist likes to call it). Mad King Thomas doesn’t often (ever?) include strictly improvised moments in our pieces, but we do present pieces after only a modicum of rehearsal.
(Don’t tell the theater police, but we’ve even gone on stage with nothing more than a vague blocking run in our living room. Also, we’re completely unlicensed to practice performance art in the state of Minnesota. Shhhh!)
There’s a connection between rawness and a sense of freedom, isn’t there? At least, I want there to be a connection. Maybe letting people see you figure it out makes us all feel more comfortable with occasionally looking foolish as we try something we’ve never done before.
