The emptiness of Melania Trump and her vanity documentary provide fertile ground for theatrical experimentation.
It's difficult not to make satire
in this unfair, this culpable City—
who could so be patient, so unfeeling?
// CURRENT SUBJECT // The emptiness of Melania Trump and her vanity documentary provide fertile ground for theatrical experimentation.
A documentary approach can be an avenue for satire.
Grouping secondary characters into a Greek chorus will isolate the figure of Melania and provide a critical lens.
The face can function as a mask.
Shifting propaganda along axes of tense, case, number, and interrogative/affirmative/negative can undermine the text and provoke dialectical thinking.
Open-process theatre, shaped over time by the people in the room. Putting theory in practice.
Each series begins with a hypothesis, which is tested in the room, refined for the next session, re-tested, and re-adjusted.
The line between audience and performer. Between rehearsal and performance. Between disciplines. We are interested in dissolving all of these — deliberately, systematically.
POOR — no sets, no costumes, no technology standing between performer and audience. Only the body, the voice, the room.
FREE — you should be able to walk into an empty space and start making theatre. No cost, no audition, no barrier to entry.
IMMEDIATE — theatre should be right in front of you. It should respond to the now, and be of the now.
INTERDISCIPLINARY — theatre is the most interdisciplinary of the arts. We are all interdisciplinary. What are your disciplines?
TheatreLab is a free weekly experimental performance space in New Orleans. Participants are welcome to drop in to a session on a whim, or to make coming part of their weekly ritual. Either way you will make your mark on the work.
At its core theatre is just an invitation and empty space. In these sessions, I hope we can claw at the roots of theatre, to the ritual, to the cosmic. See you on Monday!
— Cooper Lewis, Facilitator
Weekly sessions
New Orleans, Louisiana
Free admission
All disciplines welcome
No experience required
Location sent on registration
Write to join the mailing list
——
nomodtheatricals@gmail.com