Project 4

Unconventional Theatre

Subway Art Gallery Opening

Produced by Improv Everywhere based in New York. This 'prank' was preformed on March 18, 2009. Charlie Todd is the head of their group and Agents Eppink and Small came up with the idea.


http://improveverywhere.com/2009/03/18/subway-art-gallery-opening/#more-827 For the prank's website
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NU5K3k8Xo for the video

If people won't come to the theatre improv everywhere brings theatre to the people. Their performances are unconventional in that many of their audience members don't even know they're watching a show (just watch the bewildered people in the subway). In addition they have set up their 'art gallery' in a real and functional subway. This is a found space and found audience. Interaction was encouraged with the random subway customers by asking them to check their coats and offering them sparkling cider. This preformance by the well known improv everywhere group was successful in their mission of unconventional theatre and in challenging people to the question 'what is art?'.

Medieval Times

Medieval times is held as a private company with its headquarters in Irving, Texas. There are nine locations in North America with the one in Dallas, TX being added in 1992. They preform several times weekley at each location.

"King Phillippe and his daughter-in-law, Princess Leonore, preside over a four-course feast. Below, privileged royal guests are transported to faraway lands including a romantic snowy rendezvous in the woods and an authentic medieval tournament."


http://www.medievaltimes.com/index.php



Medieval Times is part of the dinner theatre genre. This category in itself is unique but medieval times stands apart for several reasons. This is one of the oldest commercially successful dinner theatres in the United States and is celebrating it's 25th anniversary this year. In addition to their long standing success as a unconventional feature at this theatre guests are asked to participate rather than just watching the show. Cheering and eating traditional food with one's hands is standard practice at a show. Audience inclusion, the use of live animals and a commercially successful example of a dinner theatre show all make Medieval Times unconventional theatre. (The reference to 'commercially successful' is important in this case because most dinner theaters went bust in the 80's.)


The Rules of Charity

Produced by Theatre Breaking Through Barriers, originally Theatre by the blind. The mission of the theatre has changed over the years to include many different disablities. This play was written by John Belluso, a writter with a dissablity himself. It was written in their 2007 season and I could not find a director.
http://www.tbtb.org/intro.htm

"The play’s action centered on a man using a wheelchair; the company of six integrated a low vision actress and an actor with Cerebral Palsy as well as a stage manager working from a wheelchair."

Theatre Breaking Through Barriers has embraced a range of disabilities rather than just one. I feel they are also set apart from other theatres because they have a very clear mission that they base their company around; to raise awareness of disabilities as the baby boomers come of age and begin having complications and disabilities as they age. They are also unique because they employ crew with disabilities as well as actors.

Not Waterproof
A piece of preformance art preformed by Julie Andree T. Supported by the FADO preformance art center in Toronto, Canada. The shows will be available for regular viewings on April 27th.

"Julie's iconoclastic work is a hybrid of these two approaches in which dialogue, a series of actions and live images are gradually distilled into poetry. Disconcerting, moving and unclassifiable, the piece deploy an astounding transformation of the body by means of a metamorphosis of the stage landscape. "
http://www.performanceart.ca/index.php?m=program&id=82

Any preformance art is unconventional compared to straight theatre simply because it is more art than script. FADO supports preformance artists from all over the world, offering a unique international perspective. Julie's preformance is special because it uses the human body not only as a vessel for delivering the script but also as canvas, prop and plot device. Julie offeres an additional element in her script that digresses to poetry, I didn't think most preformance art had a script at all.


The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway

Produced by the 24 Hour Plays company. All plays are written, directed and produced in a 24 hour period by participants. As a special fund raiser for working playground preformed on October 22, 2008. Some of the writers and directors for this preformance include Julia Jordan, Warren Leight, Theresa Rebeck, Kwame Kwei Armah, Christian Parker and Ari Edelson.

"The casts will meet for the first time at 8 AM and, over the next 12 hours, the plays are rehearsed and produced for a live presentation."
http://broadwayworld.com/article/StarStudded_The_24_Hour_Plays_on_Broadway_Tonight_Oct22_20071022
and
www.24hourplay.com

The creative process that produces these plays encompass their unconventional nature. Production by this company creates 6 10-minute plays written, directed and preformed in a mere 24 hours. This pushes creativity to the very limits, giving a spark of fresh energy that may be missing from traditional heavily rehearsed theatre. Every preformance and production of 24 hour plays is unique and fresh and the creative process they ask their crew to go through unconventionality in itself.