5 Radical Ingredients for Making Theater for Small Audiences

Creating and participating in theater for small audiences is a radical act. My piece U R ★ is a musical graphic novel experience for an audience of 5. Sticking with 5’s, here are 5 key ingredients that I believe make theater for small audiences wonderfully transgressive.

by finkle
 

1. Relationship

Theater for small audiences redefines, deepens, and challenges the relationship an audience has to a performance.

While in typical theater the audience gets to disappear into the darkness, in a small space the audience, though not necessarily performing, must more actively meet the needs of the experience.

In the case of U R ★, the audience participates in the performance in order for the show to happen. This engenders a heightened awareness of themselves and their fellow audience (fostering COMMUNITY! And EMPATHY!) that is in intentional opposition to our fractured, impersonal, fast-paced world.

2. Inherent Dramatic Question

The small audience by its very nature creates a palpable tension, which is inherently theatrical.

A dramatic question is more present between the performance, performer, and the audience.

Audience enters a show with questions like:

What are the rules of this space?
Who are these people sitting next to me?
Why is this piece for so few people?
How will I have to participate?

Audience is thrust into immediate conflict, immediate action.

3. Trust

In a larger space, audiences frequently forget about trust.

A large space has an established order that seems safe.

But when audience comes to theater for small audience it is typically in an unconventional location.

Trust must be established between artist and audience in a more direct and conscious way.

4. Impracticability

Theater for small audiences is extraordinarily impractical.

Questions of financial feasibility are part of the experience for both creator and audience.

How much did it cost to make?
What is everyone getting paid?
How much have I paid for this experience?
It is an act of defiance against a society
that embraces things that are big, loud, and showy to create something on a smaller scale. (Something small can still be loud and showy, can’t it?)

It seems almost anti-capitalist.

5. Time, Timing, Mistakes, and Awkwardness

In the best theatrical experiences, time flies by. In the worst…well, we’ve all been there.

In theater for small audiences, time awareness is heightened.

The creator is responsible for setting time in a way that is both specific and malleable.

The myriad of ways that individuals experience and process must be taken into account.

Particularly if the piece is task-based or requires audiences to take action.

Time must be given to allow for something to fall apart, for something to go wrong, for a mistake to made.

An awkward exchange between audience members, between audience and artist, between audience and art is exhilaratingly, radically human.

Kenny Finkle’s plays include: Indoor/Outdoor Alive and Well, Penelope of Ithaca, Transatlantica, A Thousand Years, Josh Keenan Comes Out to the World, and Syd Arthur. Over the last 3 years, Finkle has been developing a series of non- traditional theatrical works with music and visual art entitled HEART MUST RACE. U R ★ is the first piece in the series. It has been developed with support from the Orchard Project and the A.R.T. It will be presented at OBERON as part of the Mini Series Oct. 13 – Nov. 6, 2016. 

This article appeared in the A.R.T. Guide, published by the American Repertory Theater.