AT25: An Eye on the Future
Jake Rodriquez, sound designer, San Francisco
Ideas for a Future-Proof Theatre in 2034: Hovering audiences—or at least suspended, viewing the action from above the burnt-out husks of broken-down prosceniums; all theatre achieved with minimal technology—King Lear using Christmas lights, a tuning fork and a banana; site-specific theatre installations on the moon; the continuing practice of periodically switching out stage weapons with actual weapons, and a kick-ass marketing campaign to go along with it; hearing-aid feedback symphony; Best of Broadway Surgical Procedures; tooth-decay dance theatre; particle-accelerator theatre; the dissolution of all placards, announcements or notices of any kind warning of loud sounds or cigarette smoke on stage; more loud sounds and cigarette smoke on stage; more spontaneous audience deaths; the dissolution of all committees, boards and task forces involved in "season planning"; the dissolution of the "season"; onstage toilets; bring your own text (SMS), bring your own soundtrack (iPod), light your own show (LED); black-metal theatre; noise theatre; improvised death theatre; the return of syphilis and serious opium addiction; the evolution of a sophisticated catharsis that reincorporates the working class without pandering; more guts; more fangs; less brochures; bring back the rotten tomatoes; more music; less musicals; no more program notes; no more pre-show announcements; no more post-show discussions; BYOB/BYOD; more superstar stage managers; less offstage ignorance; more onstage ignorance; the production meeting with fisticuffs; Armed Audience Interaction®; way way way less self-importance and formality; more dirt, more grime, more fractured spines.