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JANUARY 19, 2006 The second week of QuestFest is in full swing, and a slew of new artists have invaded the Baltimore area, bringing some exciting work with them. Thursday marks the openings of the second round of performances, and in the mean time, we’ve had classes and events to keep us busy. FORUM at TOWSON Wednesday at Towson saw the second panel discussion for QuestFest. This week’s topic was “Is Visual Theatre Viable?” An interesting conversation between the audience and panelists Willy Conley, Jennifer Nelson, Vincent Lancisi, and Sabrina Hamilton touched on everything from America’s cultural programming to the role of the playwright in visual theatre. In discussing the use of the visual for text-based work, Vincent said, “My approach to visual theatre is to enhance the text and overcome any shortcomings of the text,” while Willy said, “As a deaf person, I’m looking for a total theatre experience. I want to be able to experience it totally through the eyes. I want to make theatre accessible to any audience member.” The group also discussed the obstacles faced in making theatre for audiences with varying needs: hearing, deaf, non-English speaking, etc. On this point Vincent said, “Hearing audiences have a need for sound. If they don’t hear music or a spoken word, it scares them.” Willy discussed the wealth of people in the United States who are linguistically isolated by the English language. The conversation then turned to ways of solving this issue. Though no consensus was reached, a ray of hope was offered by Sabrina. “I think there are ways to do shows in more than one language,” she said. MATRICES OF CONTENT The group also participated in lively debate regarding audience
interpretation of work, and what kind influence the dramaturg
or director should have on the content of a piece, as well
as the inability to evaluate theatre in a quantitative way.
Said Mollye, “We are bringing into existence something
that does not exist. The nature of performance is that the
moment it happens, it’s gone. The job of the dramaturg
is to help broaden an audience’s context for the experience
of the performance, not necessarily to tell them what it meant.” Thursday kicked off the second week of performances by Chiamaera Physical Theater and Asphyxia at Theatre Project. A healthy crowd turned out to see the two short works. Into The Night, a physical showcase scored to the music of Tom Waits, detailed the arc of a relationship from first point of contact to final farewell. Dance, mime, psychological gesture, movement both concrete and abstract, all came together to tell the word-less story. Blood Makes Noise, in contrast, used lots of language, both spoken and signed, to tell the love story of Phoebe and Sam. Comedy, acrobatics, and a whole lot of spray paint were employed to serve this piece. After the performance, a group of audience members stayed to chat with the performers about the pieces. An interesting conversation arose regarding the different experiences each audience member had of a piece, depending on whether they were hearing or not, or knew sign language or not, or looked at the work from a theatre perspective or a dance perspective. Many conversations like this have taken place over the course of the festival, and hopefully the debates here will continue out into the larger artistic circles, with the continual goal of making work that is accessible to all, but can still have an individual meaning for each audience member.
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