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Our Next Show is:
No More Pretending
aka
The Return of Indiebot
a debatable manifesto on the econo-pathics of one-way exchange
in the Soho Think Tank Ice Factory 2007
GET TICKETS HERE
@ The Ohio Theater | 66 Wooster Street in Soho
July 4, 5, 6, and 7 @ 7 pm...YES...7 pm
Starring: Alan Benditt, Meg MacCary, Matt Oberg
directed by Howard Thoresen
sets by Jane Stein
lights to Jeff Nash
clothes by Karen Flood
stage management by Erlinda Garcia
sounds by John Gideon
GET TICKETS HERE
info: 212.966.4844 | www.sohothinktank.org
Come on down and check us out in our first ever appearance
at the legendary Ohio Theater. We workshopped this play last fall,
so now it's really really ready to go. Here's what nytheatre.com said, and they're always right:
"You need to see No More Pretending for yourself, especially if you're someone who makes or once made the kind of theatre that Bromley has helped dub "indie," but also if you're a participating and curious citizen of the world in any capacity. The play—which is more compact than a typical Bromley show but just as dazzlingly mind-stretching and, if anything, more challenging to the socio-political-linguistic status quo that's extant in current American drama—may be viewed as a debate between pragmatism and a couple of varieties of idealism. There's no self-consciousness here, just passion and entertainment and an earnest desire to connect."
Welcome
to Inverse Theater's home on the web. Here you'll find what you need
to know about our plays, our parties, and our company. If you wish to
contact us, you may do so HERE.
Thanks for visiting.
A bit about our aesthetic philosophy...
Inverse does the inverse of current theater. We present
poetic plays in as many places as possible. With an aesthetic philosophy
that emphasizes the actor-text-audience relationship over giant sets,
complex lights, and other technical distractions, every Inverse play
is produced as a moveable, active, intense event that can happen anywhere,
anytime, in any way. Inverse is poetry in action.
Inverse is sick of standard staging, boring characters,
and realistic sets. Inverse is all about imagination.
Inverse loves theater that is in the round, in the face,
in the heart.
Inverse loves the party in and around the play.
Songs are great.
A musical score, noise effects, music throughout (echoes,
sound effects made by actors, musicians, etc.) are great.
Scene announcements and narrational additions are great.
Actors’ bodies used to sculpt scenes, images, objects
are great.
Odd movement, imaginative staging are great.
Extreme characters are great.
Rhythm is vital.
Functional set items are it.
Many layers of storytelling is the way to go (shadow,
masks, puppets, narrator, meta-narrative, comment, mockery, symbols,
references, dumb-shows, etc.)
Intimacy with the audience is first and foremost. Nothing
must interrupt it.
Gag stunts or the real thing. No fake realism.
An imaginative, not a realistic, world.
Color, cloth, funny/big/artistic props are coolest.Absolute
exuberance, pace, and momentum are essential.
Alternative lighting is awesome – lamps, clip lights,
xmas lights, flashlights, torches, spots, candles, etc.
We love the audience.
The play must have momentum.
We look to the great, long tradition of stage acting,
not the great, brief tradition of film acting.
Because these are verse plays, they are subject to some
of the same concerns that a piece of symphonic music is subject to:
pace, cues, volume, annunciation, pitch, and tone. These vocal elements,
which occur both within the individual actor and between actors, will
see much attention in the course of a rehearsal and performance. While
the specifics for each show, scene, and moment will differ greatly,
it can be said generally that the pace should be energetic and clippy,
the cues immediate, the volume tuned to the back row, the annunciation
absolutely clear and taking precedence over any other vocal technique,
the pitch shall be appealing and appropriate, and the tone suited to
the intention. The actor should expect to be receiving notes on these
issues throughout the entire production and should in all cases adapt
to those notes.
Intimacy between the audience and the actors is of foremost
importance. Anything that breaks this intimacy is completely unacceptable.
We play the phrase for meaning, not the word for effect,
though the effect of the word helps the phrase achieve its meaning.
We make characters, not realistic portrayals.
We act on the words.
Each character is as smart as its words.
We stage to evoke the imagination, not to accommodate
the action.
Nothing we do is related to film acting. We are theater
actors.
We pursue the magic surrealism of actors, text, story,
and innovative low impact stylish simple set/prop/light elements.
Whenever possible, have an actor do something that a
set or prop element could do.
We use simplicity to our advantage.
We tell the story first and with every tool at our disposal.
Something surprising must be happening all the time.
The play is not sacred.
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