Stories 1.0: Dramaturgical Abstract / Ambience

As the audience enters the theater the stage is buzzing with apparent activity—indeed, stagehands won’t complete their work until seconds before the house lights dim. Backstage chatter is played over the sound system as musicians tune up and play bits of various melodies that will be heard later in the performance (to foreshadow—help plant—a few melodies). The stage manager is heard checking each of the departments over the intercom, amid rewinding audio tape gibberish. Followspots are focused on the wall next to the proscenium (or similar visible location), running through the various color gels, and so on.

And if that’s not enough to tell the audience they’re in for an evening that’s a little different, and to further disarm usual expectations, on the stage one of the actors temporarily plays the part of a rumpled Lecturer, complete with blackboard, chalk and stack of blue exam booklets. He holds forth with a substantive lecture on the history of sleight-of-hand and illusion—extemporaneously and amiably bantering back and forth with various members of the audience when the opportunity arises.

As curtain time approaches, everything comes together at once. The Lecturer exits—gathering his papers and scampering off much like the rabbit running late into the hole in Alice in Wonderland; as the Stage Manager calmly walks on from the wings to center stage while continuing to call final cues, formally welcomes the audience, announces any cast changes and reminds them not to take photos. This happens concurrently with the lighting noticeably evolving; actors variously sauntering on to find their marks; the orchestra instruments audibly beginning to aggregate into a focussed unit—and so the production elides into form. The train pulls out of the station....