For recovering theater kids, and all you emos, nerds, artists and punks who thought you were too cool.
Theater is not just about what's popular on Broadway. That’s like saying music is just about bands who have made it on the top 100. But you know it’s not, you’ve seen indie concerts, soundcloud musicians, listened to a street musician or your friends play. But how do you do the same with theater?
Non-theater-freaks are often shown that theater falls into one of three categories: the superficial, expensive, melodramatic Broadway musicals; the dry political or social commentary; and the Shakespeare you were forced to read in class. (Seriously, why do we force people to read plays without seeing them live? That’s like teaching music theory by making you stare at written music while never playing a note!) For your sake, we’re skipping the Shakespeare. But even Shakespeare knew, theater was a way to bring information and stories to the masses.
Theater can be weird and artsy and new and exciting and grungy and gross. Whatever you're into, it exists onstage. Or, even better, could exist onstage with your help! Theater is live, dynamic art! It’s impossible to do alone, begs emotional investment from both the performers and the audience, and can be done spontaneously on a minuscule budget! Here's my little guide to some of my favorite styles of theater that have broken the mold over the years.
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Weird Theater Crash Course:
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THEATER of the ABSURD
Life SUCKS, what if nothing is real? Absurd theater is all about existentialism, questioning the purpose behind societal structures, and wondering what we’re doing here. Absurd plays are nonsensical, surreal yet reserved, liminal, and often depend on repeated words and phrase and cyclical plots to really show how pointless everything feels.
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THEATER of the RIDICULOUS
Life SUCKS, let’s make it more fun! Ridiculous theater responds to existentialism with camp and debauchery. Often highlighting queer themes, cross-gender casting, drag, and sexual freedom. Budgets are small, performances are often rushed and partially ad-libbed, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re going to create whether it’s good or not!
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THEATER of CRUELTY
An all-out assault on the senses! Theater of Cruelty values light, sound, and movement more than spoken word. No it’s not about causing literal pain (though it could), but shaking the audience out of their stupor as passive observers and creating visceral emotional reactions in the deepest parts of their brains.
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HAPPENING
Happenings are small pieces of performance art that are performed without announcement, usually in public spaces. They engage the audience by barely seeming like a performance at all. Happenings can be absolutely anything, that’s why there’s no better way to describe them but “a thing that is happening”!
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GUERRILLA THEATER
Surprise public performances with heavy political messaging that intends to catch unsuspecting audiences off their guard and create intense emotions. Here to disrupt and destable the status quo.
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BREAD & PUPPET THEATER
A specific theater company whose message and style has spread beyond their single group. Bread and Puppet theater is a long-running theater company that creates radical political shows combining puppet and masque characters, mime, and clownery. They believe that art must be accessible to the people, and make everything out of donated and second hand materials for a distinct slapdash style that defines their scrappy, anticapitalist values.
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