The Discordia Project debuted
Experiment #1 on April 30th 2006
at The Black Box Theatre
Zoellner Arts Center
Bethlehem, PA. |
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Synopsis
The tale is of a man who has lost his self. He must journey through strange and unlikely worlds to find his self and be complete once again. In each world he meets two characters, who help him to understand some truth he has been missing about himself. He travels between these worlds with the help of a magic knife that can cut through the fabric of space time.
The whole production was essentially free improv. None of the action that appears on stage had been rehearsed previously. The only things that had been set and rehearsed were the locations, and the game structure of the improv. Similarly music had been coordinated ahead of time, but was free to adapt to the actions on stage.
Each of the three actors played the main character of the Quester, one in each scene. When actors were not playing the Quester, they played beings from the particular realm the scene was in. |
Game structure for Experiment 1 :
This was a set structure for the flow each scene.
• The Quester enters and discovers this new world.
• The Quester defines the role of the character A, who then enters
• The two characters interact, and character A defines the role of character B, who enters.
• The three characters interact, and based off of the world he is in, the Quester learns a valuable lesson.
• Characters A and B present the Quester with a choice of two worlds he can travel to next in pursuit of his self.
• The audience picks which world the Quester should travel to next.
• The Quester cuts through the fabric of space time, into the nether-realm, where a new actor becomes the Quester who is squeezed through to the next world. |
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We believe this to be the first synthetic performance of improvisational music/theatre. Experiment #1 played only one performance, and was attended by approximately 45 people. It was the test run of this concept. Having put that in front of an audience, and being able to step back and analyze the results, we learned a lot about how to build our next show. |
A DVD copy of the performance is available upon request.
The video has been posted to the
Media Gallery.
There is a review of Experiment #1 at Merge Digital
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Previous Experience: The Lessons
• When we began the rehearsal process for Experiment #1 we were not committed to any specific ideas, only the larger improvisational structure. This allowed us to explore and learn at an astounding rate, as well as modify/develop our ideas on the run. At some points, the production was going through two to three new iterations per week.
• The lack of theatrical restraints led to enhanced development, however with so little structure, detail is hard to obtain. During Experiment #1 the characters on stage were different at every rehearsal, and the actors never got a chance to build strong actions around them. With the addition of a script, the actors will have ample time to develop a sturdy character who is capable of actions and choices that will better drive a more serious story.
• Actions that were generated in the spirit of the moment were often eerily insightful and beautiful. There was an element of truth in them that could not be scripted.
• Using audience responses proved valuable. It kept the audience engaged, and made them feel more connected to the performance. However because we have only been able to work with an audience once, the reactions were somewhat muddled. To overcome this, we plan on working with small test audiences during the rehearsal process.
• We only rehearsed for one month before opening for Experiment #1. While this was useful for developing concept, it left us little time to work on the story or the actions. For Experiment #2 we have a three month rehearsal process planned.
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