set design extending into the house -

[loebtmc]

Sort of sideways from Spidey, this article caught my eye. Interesting discussion, esp from our SM POV, about how far and how extensive the coordination of show and house -

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/theater-talkback-the-exploding-art-of-set-design/

[dallas10086]

Good points made on both sides. I've heard it described as experiential theatre, where you want the audience to enter a certain frame of mind before even taking their seats. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's difficult to predict for which productions it will work best for. There is a theatre here locally that touts itself as experiential, and half the fun is wondering 'how are they going to decorate the lobby this time?' For Marat/Sade I remember my ticket was a dismembered body with my seat number carved into the torso. For Someone To Watch Over Me, they turned the bar into a prison cell, so you had to order drinks from a poor bartender behind bars. For Metamorpheses the whole place resembled a Roman temple. Sometimes it works, but I'll admit it gets old real fast.

[missliz]

For a production of Genet's The Balcony that I saw, all the actresses who were playing prostitutes sat in the lobby in robes, holding number cards. Each reservation was given a girl preshow who took them to their seats. Silently. Bored. It was actually a really neat idea.

My last production of Balm in Gilead had actors spilling out into the lobby during the preshow- prostitutes, hustlers, addicts, people bumming cigarettes and trying to pawn jewelry. They were also in and out of the aisles at various points during the show, talking with audience members. It definitely made some audience members uncomfortable, but that was the point: the whole show is about watching the people you hurry by on the street. We also had some buskers, which actually helped earn a couple dollars for the theater every night!

It did take a lot of communication between the house manager and I...as well as a lot of timing and trust for the actors to assure that they were in the right place once the lights dimmed!

[Mac Calder]

I think it is an evolution of the theatre...

When I attend the theatre, I put on nice clothes - at least dress pants and a button down shirt and tie. I make it an occasion - generally I will have either a couple of close friends or my folks and we will go to a restaurant a few blocks away, have a nice walk to the theatre, see the show, then a nice walk to a small pub or quiet club. Make it something of an evening. I am in my mid 20's, yet it feels like I am almost part of a dying generation.

So many people seem to come to the theatre in their track pants and tee shirt,  buy the frozen daqueries in the novelty light up glasses and don't understand that whilst it is polite to applaud, it is not polite to hoot and holler. I cannot remember the last major touring show I have seen that does not have at least a custom main with some minor set elements in the house. I don't mind that so much. In fact I love sets like Wicked, RENT, Mary Poppins and the Lion King which come out of the proscenium to sort of blend the house into the show - you still have a very distinct "theatre"... it just sort of transitions to the stage. Not a big fan of shows where they go kitsch and make the ushers act and fill the place with props to create an "immersive, interactive environment"... That is what dinner theatre, cabaret and theme parks are for.

[SMLois]

And its not just set design extending into the house.  I don't know if any of you have experienced this before, but I've done a couple of shows now where they have included  a "scent" design.  For example, one show had me mopping with a pine tree aromatic oil in the mop water to give the theatre a hint of forrest smell.  Another had real red wine in places that it could be smelt to stimulate the sense memory within the audience.  I think that this is becoming more and more common as theatre's try to design the entire audience experience.

[On_Headset]

I was trained working entirely in blackbox spaces, so dealing with pros conventions (Stage is HERE! Audience is HERE!) is still something of a novelty. That being said, I do admit I get a little twitchy I enter a pros theatre and find that my view is obstructed by the gigantic stuffed plot device sitting just above aisle four.

For Someone To Watch Over Me, they turned the bar into a prison cell, so you had to order drinks from a poor bartender behind bars. For Metamorpheses the whole place resembled a Roman temple. Sometimes it works, but I'll admit it gets old real fast.

Especially for the poor bartenders! 

[catalinacisne]

One of the performing spaces at the theatre I work at is a 3/4 thrust with stadium seating, so the actors are on the same deck as the first row of seats. There are two voms splitting the audience into thirds that are the primary entrance/exits, and the actors are often close enough to the front row that you can reach out and touch them (which almost never happens).

This past fall we did a production of The Woman in Black (a classic, gore-less, scare-the-crap-out-of-you ghost story), which did some amazing things with the unique layout of the theatre. The actress playing the Woman was able to sneak up directly next to audience members, and they wouldn't notice her until an actor looked at her. The actress wore a specific perfume, and the run-crew was given a spare bottle to spray so people would smell her but not see her. They were also given feathers, to brush exposed ankles of the audience. The maze of backstage passageways (and a costumed run crew member) allowed the ghost to appear in one corner of the theatre, disappear, and reappear immediately on the other side of the stage. The neatest thing about the experience was two people sitting right next to each other could have completely different experiences. Needless to say, we were able to scare lots of people.

[kiwitechgirl]

I'm mid-run on a production of Cabaret where, as I imagine is common to quite a lot of productions of this show, we aim to make the audience feel like they are truly in the Kit Kat Klub.  We've put Chinese lanterns on all the house lights, and they extend into the foyer, as do the mirror balls (there are 100 in the theatre roof - apparently in homage to a nightclub Isherwood used to frequent which was famous for having 100 mirror balls!).  We've also replaced the sign above the doors to the theatre - it did say Court One, now it says Kit Kat Klub. 

The Kit Kat kids are all out in the foyer and in the auditorium pre-show, interacting with the audience - singing songs, encouraging people to cheer for them when they're introduced in Wilkommen, slipping them lollies wrapped up to look like drugs, pouring them cocktails (if you buy a cocktail at the bar you get a glass and a ticket, then one of the girls has a jug of the stuff in the auditorium and will pour it for you), randomly deciding it's someone's birthday and singing Happy Birthday (in German!) to them.  They're also acting as ushers, ripping tickets and showing people to their seats. We're not using any pre-recorded announcements - they're all done in character by the actor playing Max, the club owner, using a period microphone (well, it's not quite, but it looks close enough!). 

Our audiences are loving it - you get the occasional grumpy reaction, but mostly they're delighted to interact with the actors and get totally involved - it's only a 300-seat house as well, so pretty much every patron has some interaction with a Kit Kat kid at some point.  The cast will often refer back to specific audience members during the show as well, and they seem to love that too!