What does single/multi-tweet dramas, durationals, and
futurist pieces have in common? They all challenge the time and pace of
traditional theatre. As theatre practitioners and spectators we have all
experienced shows that seemed too short or felt like eternity. It seems like
the perfect show runs around an hour and
thirty minutes to two hours max and during this time frame we hope to enjoy a
theatrical experience that will present a “slice of life” in some form or fashion.
Single-tweet and Multi-tweet dramas not only challenge
what a play entails, but through virtual space and theatrical spectatorship it
shows a performance in real time. Prior to reading this particular article I
never thought that tweeting could be seen as theatrical or performative, but as
Muse states, “theatrical or pseudotheatrical activity has arguably found a life
on Twitter precisely because Twitter has always been a platform for
performance.” (140 Characters in Search of a Theater, Page 7) As an ex-tweeter
I shared a “slice of my life” several times during the day as it happened in
real time, at a pretty consistent pace, and I did it all under 140 characters.
Tweeting about a situation, person, place, or thing is easy to do in 140 words.
However, tweeting a play in 140 words is a completely different story.
I believe that the reality effect can be found in both
single/multi-tweets dramas. Although single-tweets dramas seem to end as soon
as they begin, the play is unmediated and the need for pace is unnecessary due
to its brief tweet performance time. With multi-tweet dramas the pacing is more
prevalent due to tweet performances being stretched over a longer period of time.
However due to the pacing, multi-tweet performances can come across as being
mediated because time itself is intervening. Developing a story through meted
tweet updates could waver the reality effect in my opinion, and it also poses a
struggle to maintain the interest and attention of its tweet followers.
Neo-Futurists believe in theatrical brevity and through these brief moments of
time a play can be constituted, and thus a reality effect can still be
achieved. Greg Allen says, “Extreme
brevity enforced by a ticking clock reminds the audience that theater takes
place in real time and space. The audience is right in front of you right now.”
(140 Characters in Search of a Theater, Page 9)
Performance art
artist Marina Abramovic says, “You know what’s interesting about stillness and
duration and meditation? In real life it’s impossible for me to have any of this.
The older I get the more activity and the more obligations I have. The pace is
so fast. I’m literally running after myself. So I need to create these islands
of time. Then I go through this transformation in the work; work transforms me,
and then I use this experience in real life.” (Great Lengths, Page 154) I found
this particular quote to be interesting because the time/duration of the piece
allowed Marina to experience a sort of internal reality effect due to the
recollection of how life and its pacing affected her. To the spectator this is
an extreme contrast to theatrical brevity found in single/multi-tweet dramas
and Neo-Futurist plays because durational works specifically challenge pace.
Due to this challenge the work happens in a drastically stretched out version
of “real time”.
I honestly do
not know what’s next following these forms of performance. If you experiment
with drama being extremely brief, extremely long, then what can follow after that?
What I can comment on is that if the goal is to produce performances that
strive for that “reality effect” then aiming towards theatrical brevity could
help.
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