Waking up the Audience
How Transforma Theater’s Science in Theater Festival got the audience to stretch their minds beyond the lines
“Just as it’s a truism that one only learns deeply when, out of inner necessity, one digs out ideas for oneself, so in art, one is only “touched” when the form is such that invites one to dig out what is there to be noticed.” — Richard Foreman, Ontological-Hysteric Manifesto II
When you scrape away the dense, philosophical stylings of Richard Foreman in thinking mode, you basically get: good art requires the audience to do some work.
And whether you agree or disagree, the fact remains that art does have the power to wake us up. To set things in motion. And at a time when so many have become numb to the complexity of our world from doom-scrolling through this perpetual pandemic, the stains of political upheaval from 2020, and the ongoing climate catastrophe. It might be worth giving art a shot. To use art to gently pull us all back into an awareness of that complexity. So we can work with it, move through it, and develop some grit along the way.
The internet has no doubt weakened our abilities to do any work when it comes to the consumption of art. Brightly colored feeds serve up infotainment as fast as a thumb can scroll. The user experience is designed to mitigate any thinking, dialoguing, or deep dives.
Which begs the question, how does one make art in the information age? Or at least, art according to Foreman, “art refreshingly, exhilaratingly thought of as an aid in teaching one new navigational abilities.”
Enter Transforma Theater’s Science in Theater Festival. A three day, three play event that paired scientists with playwrights to create stories that combine empiricism with the raw emotion of theatrical performance. Each play tackled a complex topic that dances on the precarious edge of where our relationship with technology might take us.
“Zebra 2.0” by Saviana Stanescu explored a night-shift janitor’s budding relationship with the her employer’s AI. Giving us a fresh take on the plot of Spike Jonze’s 2013 film, “Her.” Where we see a woman falling for a male AI. And unpacking her immigrant experience with irreverence.
“Affinity,” by Alexis Roblan, questions our manipulated media world where individuals can shape their existence and connections to suit another. Blurring the lines between true human expression and fabrications. Imploring whether these connections have any merit at all. And asking the audience to consider, wtf even is “understanding”, and how are we sure we’ve attained it?
“Eden,” by transmedia artist, Wi-Moto Nyoka, makes a statement very close to our current, pandemic-fueled reality. The play pairs a doctor with a scientist who work together to cure a mysterious disease. Leading the audience to ponder the interplay of western medicine and the science that stretches its imagination. And to wrestle with the mysteries that exist within the body no matter how much testing and study goes into it.
Most theater exists to entertain. To stimulate with emotion and do little else. Theater, film, and most especially TV shows reduce the audience to captive eyeballs. Attentive for the ninety or so minutes they paid for, with no expectations beyond.
Sure, not all theater, films, or TV shows are that reductive. But rarely do they aspire to much more. If we zoom back out to consider the detriments of the information age, most writers and directors are always still considering how to get butts in seats and eyeballs on screens so they can keep their jobs and survive to write another day. Requiring that your audience does some deep thinking and maybe even some homework is not really economically viable.
But Transforma Theater went there. And as a result, this display of art shifted the conversation away from whether or not the play was “good.” And asked instead, whether or not the play woke you up. And I for one would not have been moved to write this if it hadn’t.
To echo Richard Foreman once more, these plays became a field for noticing. And stimulated the audience to see, listen, touch, taste, and smell in such a way that is thinking. Not just swallowing.
You can learn more about Transforma Theater at transformatheatre.com.
