Experience not Performance

CONGRESS IN SESSION

To the Esteemed Delegation,

My hopes are high for 2009. In a week, we will be seeing in a new president and much needed change. I also sense a new artistic breeze stirring, one that I hope turns into a full storm, again of much needed change.

I firmly believe that one of the main roles of art is to allow the spectator to see the world through a new set of eyes, through a different perspective. To broaden perceptions creates acceptance and understanding. We have lived through eight years of feeling morally superior to the world, and that is unhealthy. The moment you place yourself above another, the moment you assume that you know what is right for someone else better than they know what is right for themselves, is the moment when violence and hatred are allowed to blossom.

Last week, I reviewed the interactive Iraq War simulation/performance Surrender. For four hours, I was literally put in the U.S. Army issued boots of another person. For four hours, I saw the world through eyes that were not my own. I cannot stop thinking about this experience. And though I did not see Kirk Wood Bromley’s new untitled play, I have talked to Critic Martin Denton extensively about his experience seeing it. While he was not issued a replica rifle and put through basic training as I was, Denton nonetheless left the theatre feeling ravaged and defiled by a play that did not just show him an experience but put him through it as well.

Experience. I wrote that word three times in the last paragraph, not because of shoddy proofreading, but because there was no other word to use. ‘Experience’ is a very powerful artistic tool, and one I hope will be part of this new theatrical wave I perceive.

Here is my challenge to the artistic community (first and foremost to my own company, No. 11 Productions): Do not just show the audience a new world or a new perspective, let them feel it, be completely engaged in it. Make it an experience. Take them on the journey with you. It does not have to be done as literally as in Surrender (although I sure would love to take part in more theatre like it). I believe there are a multitude of means to this end yet to be explored, and that is very exciting.

We have only had two rehearsals for our upcoming production of Artaud’s Jet of Blood. But they have been incredibly energizing and fruitful. I hope that when all is said and done, Jet of Blood will be an Experience not a Performance.

Written by Julie Congress