Spectator Sport

Theatre is not a spectator sport. Perhaps it is just the revolutionary in me, but I find myself more and more dissatisfied with "traditional" theatre, the sort of theatre where you sit back and disengage. Like television.

It is no secret that I do not watch television, and I have few qualms with expressing my distaste for television. It is certainly not a universal distaste-- I love PBS, enjoyed watching the World Cup, and even like "regular" shows sometimes-- but the "new normal" of mindlessly detaching by staring at a television is just something I cannot accept. It bugs me. Our culture watches way too much television, and it is all a part of our incessant (and unhealthy) desire to disconnect, shut down, and remove ourselves from the world.


A friend and I have been discussing the possibility of directing a musical together recently, and we started looking at our performance space options last night. Our options were all places not intended for musical theatre, and the closest to a conventional stage was nowhere near deep enough for much dancing at all. Another potential space was just a big, empty room which would require the construction of a stage, including the backstage area. Freedom, but we lack the resources and funds to do something like that. But the last one grabbed me: theatre-in-the-round.

The more we considered the possibility of the space, the more I realised the potential for incredible theatre. Not only would it be theatre-in-the-round, but it would be near-impossible to use the space without including the audience. There was no room for a fourth wall to be built anywhere, or even a third, second, or first. The audience would be forced into the musical with no hope for detaching.

That is the kind of theatre I like. In fact, I think it's the only theatre worth bothering myself with at all. What is the point of sharing a story if the audience is detached? What is the point of theatre if the audience will not hear? Theatre is not something you watch happening; theatre is life, and like life, it is something we all have to participate in for it to work.

Life is not a spectator sport. It is high time we turned off the television, got off Farmville, and opened up our eyes and our hearts to the here and now. We have not been called to disconnect and disengage, but to wake up to all that surrounds us. Regardless of whether or not our world is the product of intelligent design (believe what you will), it is undeniable that life is an utter miracle. It is inexplicable. Every plant, animal, rock, and element in this world is a part of something more incredible than we will ever truly understand or appreciate. Everything, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu would say, is "holy," is a "God-carrier."

We are a part of this miraculous world, inherently connected to all of Creation/Big-Bang-ation. And as we disconnect and disengage, the world then lacks a crucial part of itself: us, and so too do we lack the connection to the world that is so necessary to our existence. It is absolutely imperative that we re-connect with our world, lest we and our world wither.

Life is not a spectator sport.