When Theatre Returns, Take Risks
Michael T. Oakes
We are currently in a void with no theatre outside of that is prerecorded. This serves a couple of purposes. One, it gives more accessibility to see some fantastic shows while in quarantine (even if it’s for a limited time). The other thing it has done is to create a longing to return to live theatre. People missing going out to the theatre, seeing the set for the first time, reading (or pretending to read) the program, and all of the other sensory experiences that we may have taken for granted in the theatre before. This longing to return affords something that some may have been averse to before, risk-taking.
PREFACE: Risk-taking, by my definition, is stepping outside of tradition with set design, lighting, acting style, or acting genre. It is NOT casting a person of color in a traditionally white role. That is not risk. If the actor is good, it should just happen.
This absence can act as a reminder that the theatre is constantly on the edge of a cliff. It is the most fleeting of the performance art forms. While on the edge of this cliff, why not take the chance to do something memorable? This is the chance to do minimalist Hamlet and overblown Zoo Story. An audience that has missed the theatre will come to see what artists are doing coming out of quarantine. Take those ideas in the back of your head that you’re convinced won’t work and play with them. Take your favorite play and throw it into a new genre. Imagine what a futurist version of a Sam Shepard play would look like. Go full cartoonish style with a Brecht show. Take the fire escape in Glass Menagerie and put it somewhere you wouldn’t expect on stage. There are unlimited possibilities of what to do with theatre.
This could possibly act as a shakeup to shows that have looked, felt, and sounded the same for decades. Some people will long see the classics, which is completely valid. But who’s to say the classics have to have that classic look? I think a lot of times in the theatre we can end up stuck in thoughts of how things should be instead of what they could be. There is no one way to do art. It comes through the lens of the artists involved. I implore artists, when we return, to make their lenses more of a kaleidoscope. The best plays are ones that do exactly that, play.
When audiences return and are happy to be able to go out and see the set for the first time, or read the program, why not try to make this return one of their most memorable theatrical experiences ever? Sometimes from the most abstract ideas and frames comes the best designs, directing, and acting.
Photo: Aaron Arts