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Re: RAT Response to Online Theater Comments Re. Cat Hebert
Hi Wally,
Tribal, interactive theater offers some degree of immersion. One theater
problem is that since it is often used as a training ground for TV and
film, an awful lot of work is defacto designed for those 2D media, and
the immersive benefits are lost. Tribal theater deals with shared
community values. If our plays don't reflect community values and
interests, then that natural advantage of theater is lost. [For example,
an enormous number of people in the U.S. now have highly technical
occupations. Except for a few pieces -- including those written by a
couple of folks on this list -- where do we see these people's lives
reflected in theater?]
In terms of storytelling, architecture and dance, I think that all human
relational forms "tell a story" because ... that's our main learning
trick. Not a conflict-based story. Not a time limited story.
As you may remember from a conversation we had one night, my interest in
VR immersive, interactive storytelling has partly to do with breaking out
of conflict based storytelling that TV/film have addicted us to -- into
a greater variety of forms. That conflict orientation has not only
helped to destroy our societal framework through the escalation of
conflict into violence [Stim level is crucial when designing addictive
entertainments], it has also boxed us creatively into structures that
reflect a largely adolescent male cognitive view of the universe.
I would like to be able to place audience members who, say, are wildly
enthusiastic about biology and evolution directly into environments where
they can "be" on Galapagos Island walking and talking with Charles Darwin
and Dobszhansky and Crick in a world that has story elements (shaped
events) and where the audience/performer interaction ("flow") is natural,
but controlled. Maybe there are problems to be solved. Maybe they have to
go try to save a species. Maybe they are a couple and want to spend
making love on the lagoon. Whatever their drama is, there drama should
be.
Cheers,
Cat Hebert
On Wed, 16 May 2001 08:47:51 -0700 (PDT) vz <dexteriously@yahoo.com>
writes:
> Cat,
>
> You're making so many interesting points that it's difficult to
> respond
> in passing, but thanks.
>
> I was glad to see that you are interested in a medium that is
> "immersive," even if the technology isn't there yet to allow such a
> deep experience. Immersiveness is what live theatre purportedly
> offers: presence, breathing the same air, etc. Your fellow artists
> (including me) will *swear* that it's possible to pull off the feat
> of
> immersion with grace, candor, poetry, electricity, and more. But I
> don't want to dismiss your testimony, especially not these points:
>
> --that our work, even the best of it, is largely beneath the notice
> of
> most people
>
> --that there is a gulf separating our claims on behalf of theatre
> and
> the work that is actually being done out there
>
> I don't really have a problem with either of those statements. The
> first seems true enough, the second is easy to believe on any given
> night in any given theatre. Why not take your testimony as a
> challenge, I say. Do better work. Think about the whats and whys
> and,
> especially, the for whoms.
>
> A couple of questions leaped to my mind, however. Perhaps these
> are
> just sidetracks?:
>
> --Is it necessary for theatre to tell a story? Can it do something
> else? I'm thinking of dance. I'm thinking of architecture.
>
> --Is not one of the essential qualities of theatre the fact that it
> is
> perishable? It is here and now, and then it is gone. IMHO, this is
> a
> good thing.
>
> Wally Z
>
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