Being here: court-side at A Number

Sometimes those of us who work in the theatre forget how being at live theate can feel for some folks in the audience, especially if it's new to them. It's worth remembering that there are always (we hope) people considering coming to the theatre for the first time, or encountering a new kind of show or new way of doing a show. For such newbies, the message we can send is that coming to live theatre can be a great adventure: stimulating and always unique. Sometimes people just haven't had the chance to discover how fun coming to the theatre can be, and especially so at a well-done "serious" drama: there is nothing quite like living the suspense and going through the emotional ups and downs of an expertly played thriller right alongside the actors in the same room.

An "insider's view" can be even more of an eye-opening thrill: we are trying to "open up" the creative process as we rehearse Caryl Churchill's play, A Number at NC Stage by inviting a relative neophyte to come along for the ride, and write about her experience for a wider audience. You can read Elizabeth Dacy's blog posts on rehearsals here. Dacy is a creative writing and theatre student at Warren Wilson College witnessing professional-level theatre-making first hand. I find her observations both fresh and direct.

We're in North Carolina, and the Tar Heels have just clinched the NCAA title. A Number has nothing to do with basketball, but I think there's an analogy to be made between the intense one-on-one of the play's scenes, and the experience of being at a game. For those folks who've never seen a play "in the round" before, I've been drafting audience-friendly playbill notes about designing the set for A Number:

Were you jazzed to see Tyler Hasborough work his magic for the Tar Heels in the recent NCAA National Championship? Did you take in the game on a big flat-screen TV? What would you have given to have really been there, court-side?

When set designer Don Baker and I began to think about A Number, we wondered how the scenery might help you to best feel the way in which the play creates a sense of shifting perceptions. We also wanted to enhance the feeling that the play relates to the real world and our changing understanding of community. We thought about displaying live-feed video of the actors and the audience on big flat-screen TVs. One of my students suggested making the scenery out of mirrors. But the play is compelling in its own right, and doesn’t need scenery that might distract from the actors’ performances. Playwright Caryl Churchill writes very little about the setting: only “it’s where Salter lives,” and nothing more. We were stumped.

Unlike many theaters, NC Stage is usually arranged to have seating on three sides, in a way called a “thrust” stage. When three or more actors are on a thrust stage, it’s easy to make sure that at least some actors’ faces can always be seen by someone in the audience. It is harder, though, to watch just two actors on a thrust, especially if you’d like them to sit still and really talk to one another--and still see both their faces! Taking this into account, Don and I realized that we’d have to think in a new way about the design: less pictorially and more environmentally.

The result is a simple set with the audience placed all around the action. With audience on all sides, the actors are free to move naturally anywhere on the stage, while still remaining powerfully connected to one another. At all times, one of the actors will be faced away from some seats, but the effect will be democratic rather than exclusionary. Like a basketball game, the action is exciting to watch in three dimensions. As the actors change their positions throughout, you will see the play from series of shifting angles rather than from a fixed point of view. We hope that by sitting in a circle, you will feel that you are part of a community, literally sharing the event with the actors and each other.

An added benefit of the seating arrangement is that actors’ performances feel more immediate. At rehearsals, Charlie and Graham have been inspired to practice the play at the top of their game, knowing you will experience the play’s magic from every angle, and creating a vibrant energy by sitting arena-style. Even if you couldn’t make it to Michigan for the Tar Heels’ victory game, I’d like to welcome you to “court-side” seats for our production of A Number.

For an even more expansive take on the analogy of sports to theatre, check out this blog post.

A Number performs at NC Stage from April 15 through May 3. Tickets are available online here.