Cennarium Backstage Issue 3 - Promenade Festival Special Edition | Page 10

The show I hope for is one that
shows me something different
performative leap of some kind—and surely the
material demanded it. What if, she wondered, performance lends itself to multidisciplinary
the balloons were also “performing”? “I ways to view the show. Video representation,
had to accept that I was going to lay out in particular, especially intrigues Hägg: “There
an emotional and narrative structure that are certain things that the eye of a camera
could be ruptured or punctured at any could capture in a close, beautiful way that are
moment. Then I realized: that is the play.” never going to be as magical for an audience
member sitting 40 feet away. We discovered
Rather than fear every pop, Simmons
Such a unique multidisciplinary
now embraced voyeurism—the idea that that you can see the shadow of sweat dripping
audiences could observe the performer’s down the actor's body inside the balloon. On
reentry into the balloon. The physical process camera, this would be beautiful. In a theatre,
is both thrilling and ungraceful—and a poignant it'd be impossible to see.”
contrast to the way a human body suddenly As Staging Wittgenstein headed to
exits a balloon in one instantaneous pop. And Edinburgh, it seemed to be visual art, poetry,
then the play continues. dance, research and theater all at once—yet
never the same from one night to the next.
Pivoting to the pop also meant
rethinking the nature of the show—and “The show I hope for is one that shows me
focusing on the sheer athleticism required something different,” Simmons concludes.
to perform inside a latex balloon. “It might “Every iteration has and will be what it is. The
look violent when it bursts and it might look show is its own evolution.” An observation fit
extremely difficult to get back in,” Lebedev for Wittgenstein.
told me. “But the most exhausting part is
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being inside it…after 10 minutes, you're just Stephen Charles Smith is a New York-based
cooking in there.” The performances are, in a theater maker and dramaturg. He has a
way, also like icebergs: the audience can only degree in Dramatic Literature from New York
see facial acting while the rest of the body University.His most recent projects include
exhibits a mix of ballet, gymnastics, cross- assisting production on Julia Jarcho's The
fit and dance. It’s physical dissonance in real Terrifying at Abrons Arts Center, acting in
time and has led Simmons to experiment Jordan Baum's Gobstopper at The Tank, and
with a new section in which a light held co-screenwriting the experimental short
behind the balloon allows a body silhouette film Lilac. He is a '20 MFA candidate in
to be seen, distorted, by the audience. Dramaturgy at Columbia University.
#streamthearts #streamarts
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