I’m reading and then, you act: making art in an unpredictable world by Anne Bogart. It’s a meditation on the things that make theatre art, how it’s distinct, and what is needed to create compelling and meaningful theatre. Hitting me this week are the discussions of magic and alchemy in theatre. I think specifically because she talks about the transformative nature of live performance due to engaging the audience’s imagination. In Anne’s words:
“The theatre is an ideal vehicle for magic and alchemy because it can ask an audience to make an investment of imagination.” (89)
I’ve been discussing the relationship and role of the audience in theatre for several years now, trying to figure it out. Of course, Bertolt Brecht argued that the audience needs to be active. He developed his theatrical style in response to the sentimental theatre of the time, which he felt, lulled the audience into a sense of intellectual complacency due to it’s reliance on emotional catharsis. He sought to create theatre that disrupted the audience’s emotions and thoughts by forcing them to reevaluate what was happening on stage and in the story. He theorized that by reminding the audience that they were watching actors who were telling a story that had been crafted, the audience would remember not to trust everything that they saw. The audience would have to think about the events in the play and by extension the world around them.
I think this insistences on revealing the trick rather than hiding it is especially useful for theatre. Movies are a province in which CGI and post-production can clean up and hide the wires and this process is fun and riveting. I think theatre can invite the audience to be part of that process, specifically by admitting and embracing that, as Keir Elam writes, everything onstage is a symbol because it is on the stage.
This is especially significant to our production of Jane Eyre. By representing the novel in a black box theater without significant period costumes, props, and scenery we enter this realm of magic and alchemy. Our black box is a place in which
“Space does not have to be descriptive, literal or representational. Space can be magical and alchemical. Space can be transformative.” (Bogart 91)
Our playing space transforms multiple times by arrangement of bodies and chairs. The center of the playing space is alternately Gateshead, Lowood, Thornfield, a moor, an attic, and even the inside of Jane’s mind. It is these places because they are where Jane is. The ensemble of actors recreates the space through movement, physical relationship, and sound—it’s a magical combination which is equal parts specific choreography and emotional upheaval. As the rehearsals progress we experiment with different movements, choreography, moments, and actions, testing them out to see what best tells the story.
Bogart describes working through this process as response to a couple questions:
“What is the least that you can put onstage in order to allow the most space for the audience’s imaginative participation? What will release the power of the audience’s fantasy?” (91)
In Jane Eyre we are discovering this with a wonderful sense of the magic of the human body(ies) in space. There’s going to be a lot of room for the audience’s imagination and fantasy to fill in the world around us as we transition between the patterns of Jane’s life. The most interesting part of the process for me is discovering the connections between characters. Jane is frustrating for me because she feels so isolated and she continues to isolate herself in a mistake bid for affection. This means that every time we find a way for Jane to connect and hook into the space, which really is established by her relationship to it is both a heartbreaking and comforting realization. The ensemble is such a gift because while they are separate from Jane/Bertha who are one, they are also the same.
We are all the mind of Jane, as it were.
The sense of separation is an effect of perspective and not of reality. I am always already part of them and they are always already part of me.
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