Something that I was looking for during the readings of this week, but which I was not able to answer, is: Who are the spectators Brecht, Boal and Diana Taylor talk about and also, how do they benefit from participation? Theatre is a communal experience so the question is also what kind of community it creates- who is in and who is out? In a way, the audience is rehearsing something by being an active spectator. They are not only experiencing the unfamiliar but doing the unfamiliar. And I like this idea. doing becomes a form of belonging. (Diana Taylor) When Diana Taylor talks about Regina José Galindo, she writes: “She (Galindo) has no illusions that she can change the political situation, but she does everything in her power to make the situation known in the most forceful way possible.” Performance is creating possibilities for learning and for knowledge. And then as Boal writes about Brecht, he mentions, that the emotions evoked through knowledge are making transformations possible, not the emotions out of ignorance. So, the possible dialectic transformation of society. Diana Taylor: “Performance is a doing to, a thing done to and with the spectator.” These are not new questions and or ideas, but maybe instead of wanting to reach most people possible to be spectators of a performance, we have to concentrate more radically on deciding who is the spectator community. Whom do we want and need to be present (not, who happens to be present). With whom is this Performance being done today and with whom tomorrow?
Private: Commun-ator
Something that I was looking for during the readings of this week, but which I was not able to answer, is: Who are the spectators Brecht, Boal and Diana Taylor talk about and also, how do they benefit from participation? Theatre is a communal experience so the question is also what kind of community it creates- who is in and who is out? In a way, the audience is rehearsing something by being an active spectator. They are not only experiencing the unfamiliar but doing the unfamiliar. And I like this idea. doing becomes a form of belonging. (Diana Taylor) When Diana Taylor talks about Regina José Galindo, she writes: “She (Galindo) has no illusions that she can change the political situation, but she does everything in her power to make the situation known in the most forceful way possible.” Performance is creating possibilities for learning and for knowledge. And then as Boal writes about Brecht, he mentions, that the emotions evoked through knowledge are making transformations possible, not the emotions out of ignorance. So, the possible dialectic transformation of society. Diana Taylor: “Performance is a doing to, a thing done to and with the spectator.” These are not new questions and or ideas, but maybe instead of wanting to reach most people possible to be spectators of a performance, we have to concentrate more radically on deciding who is the spectator community. Whom do we want and need to be present (not, who happens to be present). With whom is this Performance being done today and with whom tomorrow?