RATS IN THE WALLS: SITE SPECIFIC THEATER
IN A HIGH-RENT AGE
:RATS IN THE WALLS


Lead by:
Lisa D'Amour (Friend of Frontera@HPT, Austin, TX/Playwright's Center, Minneapolis, MN)
Megan Monaghan (Frontera@HPT)
Katie Pearl (Physical Plant/Frontera@HPT, Austin, TX)

Lisa, Katie and Megan have each worked on several site specific pieces in the recent past. Megan and Lisa each performed in Erik Ehn/Frontera@HPT's ENFANT PERDUS, which reconfigured Hyde Park Theater inside and out. Katie recently directed Steve Moore's ONCE, which was performed in a small shed. Lisa and Katie are currently creating a "drive-by performance" which will be performed in a grove of trees near a busy street in Austin. Finally, Lisa is writing and will be directing a play which will be staged underneath a bridge in Portland, OR in June.

Since the three of us have been so involved in site specific work lately, we want to explore how and why it can work, how and why it can fail and why site specific work might be an essential practice for companies who are committed to subverting and transforming conventional theater structures.

PART I: ROUNDTABLE

TOPICS-IN-PROGRESS

  • Pieces born from a specific site.
  • Pieces which are drawn to a site
  • Transforming your theater into a new site
  • Site Specific work and "The Audience"
  • Seduction, Expectation and Wholeness: The appeal of site specific work
  • Troubleshooting: Ten things to watch out for when working in a non-trad space.
  • PART II: Workshop

    After the roundtable, workshop participants will divide into groups and be lead through a series of exercises which will allow them to create a short piece using a specific site inside or nearby the theater. At this point, we don't know if these will be shared only with workshop participants, or if there will be a "showing" for rats at the fest. The nature of the workshop session will evolve as we get more info about how much time we have, where the workshop will take place, etc.


    E-mail Lisa D'Amour abita@mail.utexas.edu

    E-mail Ben Trovato rat@whirl-i-gig.com

    To the RatFest '97 webpage

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