As the software portion of the media delivery system and media style were to be two of the final elements introduced into the mix, it was important to have a text that would sustain the starts, stops and the speed of the integrated media. For me this meant the play would have to be imbued with great dialogic energy.
According to Staub “the initiation or cessation of motion, the maintenance or change of direction, and the increase or decrease of rate, all require energy” and “since the human body is the basic moving unit of kinetic theatre, theatrical energy is measured in terms of that body.” Just as each part of the text reacts with or against other parts to create a dynamic sense of meaning, bodies in motion must do the same as they interact with media and other kinetic elements in the playing space. It was important that the direction of the actors be flexible enough that a congruent and flexible style could be gleaned from the mixture of actor movement and media delivery.
For the art of directing the notion of dialogic or textual energy is very important and often neglected. Staub describes textual energy as “both an internal and external quality; that is, there is both physical and psychic energy” and goes on to elucidate that “in the physical art of theatre, psychic energy must find some physical outlet, be it motion or sound.” This psychic energy is part of the dynamic sinew that binds characters and other elements of the kinetic theater. Certain bodies in motion are granted access to more potential energy than others for a number of reasons: social position, physical or moral strength and magic among others. When we are told that a carpet flies we are willing to grant that type of energy to an otherwise inert object. In James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter, Henry II has more potential energy than his sons by virtue of his being king. In most versions of the Robin Hood myth Robin Hood is given more potential energy than King John by virtue of his relative moral ascendance.
Part of the director’s work is to locate and exploit these possible sources in the text. This exploitation takes place using all available kinetic elements, light, sound, media and actor. In my production of Dark Ride, when the Jeweller in bandaged face feels the mediated sunlight from an open window it invites a surge of energy that reveals itself in the text, “These bandages come off tomorrow and then . . . WHO ARE YOU?”
As Dark Ride is a play largely consisting of soliloquies, the idea of exploring the contraction and expansion of psychic energy in speech was especially appealing. Monologues or soliloquies are sections of text that provide rich opportunities for an exploration of the ebb and flow of psychic energy. Staub describes Hamlet as a character with “the normal physical energy of any man his age. . . . But Hamlet has more than usual psychic energy that must be revealed. Shakespeare does so in a number of ways, but one of his chief methods is transferring interior energy into the special speech from known as the soliloquy. Potential energy is conserved by rest and controlled movement and expended by moving and speaking.”
One of the most difficult challenges posed by directing and producing mediated theater is often a discord between media ambition and media realization. Fluctuations in lag time between software directives and hardware response, the necessity for placement of hardware in areas that inhibit the movement or speech of actors, microphones that pick-up unwanted or unnecessary ambient sound, are all synaptic ‘speed-bumps’ for an audience and serve as disruptions, consciously or unconsciously, to the flow of story. Whether the media is canned or interactive this discord often gives the impression of humans waiting on technology.
An actor’s lack of confidence in the dependability of technology can be embedded in the physical work of the actor so that character creation and pre-show preparation include the actor’s anticipation of dealing with the possibility of technology failure on a scale that reveals itself in the actor’s physical bearing, on a par at least equal or greater, in terms of focus and mental space, with that of character biography and movement. Uncomfortable actors make for an uncomfortable audience. This was something I wanted to avoid.
I was fortunate to have an advisor with experience directing mediated theater. After multiple conversations we agreed that this production would be better served by making certain the media delivery system, hard and software, should be in place and tested at least midway through the rehearsal period.
Once the actors had seen the system at work I could begin tightening the metaphor systems I would utilize to bind actor and media. With this in mind I arrived at the concept of working one act of the play the first two weeks of rehearsal at an accelerated pace providing something tantamount to ‘proof of concept’ for the design team to look at that included the elements of kinetic theater mentioned earlier. Extending the use of a convention created by the author, the actors would snap their fingers when they arrived at a place in the text where a media cue was called for, as if bringing the media to life. When I felt the first act was polished enough, I invited the media design team in to watch a run-through.
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