Theatre for One at City Tech
Yesterday at City Tech, we presented my old friend Christine Jones' Theatre for One, and it was a rousing success. As I mentioned, Theatre for One is one performer presenting to a single spectator in a mini theatre built like a road box:
While waiting, the audience can either watch the performer on video, or look through the small openings in the box:
Christine lined up three great performers: Magician and actor Steve Cuiffo, toy pianist Phyllis Chen (pictured above), and Tony award winning actor Frank Wood.
Also, as part of City Tech's Emerge lecture series, Lot-Ek, the architects who worked with Christene on the development of the theatre gave a great presentation:
It was a fascinating experiment in perfmance, and we learned a lot. Aesthetically, someone could probably write a doctoral dissertation on how being enclosed in such an intimate space affects performance for both performer and spectator. Technically, we learned that when the entire theatre is about 100 square feet, work proceeds slowly. Also, as the old saying goes, "There are no small shows", and even though it's a very small project physically, the entire infrastructure of a traditional live performance is still needed, and the Entertainment Technology department provided significant resources, as did Christene. It was a great opportunity and experience for the students, so it was well worth it. Many more photos here.