Project #4 Unconventional Theatre

1.PANGAEAN DREAMS: A Shamanic Journey

The Lincoln Center Serious Fun Festival

7/25/91 Rachel Rosenthal

Ms. Rosenthal performing her shamanic journey.

http://www.rachelrosenthal.org/stuff.html

Rachel Rosenthal does a lot of these "unconventional" performances. She is the only one on stage, and there isn't as much as a narrative as there is a 64 year old bald woman playing around in dirt and preaching about how humans should be treating nature.

2.The Bacchae

Screaming Weenie Productions

January 18-29, 2005

Directed by Ilena Lee Cramer

Poster for the "Electronic Opera" in Vancouver

http://www.vancouverplays.com/theatre/reviews_theatre/review_bacchae_2005.htm

There are a number of peculiar and unconventional happenings in this production. The location in the words of critic Leanne Campbell, "The Weenies have created a theatre space in a most unlikely spot: a large room above a bakery on East 1st Avenue, near Main, in that funny little industrial area north of the car repair shops." A local DJ by the name of Tracey D serves as conductor for the piece. There is live "beat-dropping" on stage and some passages one might traditionally sing are now rapped. This Canadian Electronic Opera is clearly unconventional.

3.Ape

The Walker Art Center

March 18-29, 2009

Gary Stevens

British performer Gary Stevens (center) performs in Ape 

along with Julian Maynard Smith (left) and Wendy Houstoun.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/03/17/stevens_ape/?refid=0

Gary Stevens has gone from singing the Teletubbies theme song, and helping with movement on the children's shows to confusing audiences all over Britain- and now the US. Gary Stevens says about his show, ""It's rather like some sort of alien who has seen a theater show once and decided to so on and got it wrong." The entirety is a jumbled sub-human affair with no formal script and constantly shifting roles depending on the deliveries of certain lines which the performers "repeat, respond and adapt what the others are saying." Sounds fun.

4. England

World Performance Project (WPP) at Yale

October 28-30, 2008

Tim Crouch

A publicity image for “England,” Tim Crouch’s two-act play

touching on the themes of art, wealth and the value of human life.

http://opa.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=6152

Premiering at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, one can only expect unusual happenings in this show. It is set in an art gallery, so of course- the audience travels through one! The play is autobiographical in nature, so appropriately the playwright plays one of the two docents leading the audience and commenting on the artwork. The second act takes the audience into the theatre of the gallery where the rest of the heart transplant art murder mystery continues.

5. an oak tree

Presented by Perry Street Theatre Co.,

Rosalie Beer, A.J. Epstein and 

Richard Jordan Productions

 in association with Barrow Street Theatre

November 4th, 2006- February 2007

Tim Crouch

writer turns person into character!

http://www.newsfromnowhere.net/shows/an-oak-tree.html

 Tim Crouch again already- he must be quite the unconventional guy. Now this show just sounds amazing- Tim stars and plays everynight with another actor on stage. That other actor changes every night. The other actor has never read the script before. It's genius. He's had quite a few noteable guests on his stage including Mike Myers, Frances McDormand, and F Murray Abraham.