Dr Faustus Lights the Lights

A little over a year ago now, a profound thing was accomplished by a relatively small group of people.  A few students from Brown University took the unfinished libretto from Gertrude Stein's Dr Faustus Lights the Lights, filled it with a modern electronic score, and placed the classic myth in a 360 degree theatrical super-spectacle.

A workshop for Kickstarter's Dr. Faustus Lights the
Lights. / VIA: kickstarter.com

Through a series of production workshops, the creators of the production decided to place the classic tale in the modern, urban age, making the themes all the more relevant as the characters struggle to find true connection in the height of the technological era.  Combining light shows with riveting song and dance, the production brings the classic out of antiquity and into present-day relevance.

The company of the modern re-imagination of Dr. Faustus Lights
the Lights. / VIA: BrownDailyHerald.com

Performed at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in downtown New York City, the production removes the traditional proscenium theatre venue and instead submerges the audience directly in the middle of a 360 degree set built in a small room, making the story and its themes all the more intimate.  The show implements a profound combination of lights, special effects, magic, music, costumes and scenery to delight, shock and inform the audience.  Truly a marvelous revitalization of the infamous tale.

Dark Water by David Stallings

The realm of Off-Off-Broadway is certainly a place where theatre lovers can find many different experemental and innovative concepts at work.  The Manhattan Theatre Company's upcoming production of Co-Artistic Director David Stallings' new play Dark Water is one such case.

Playwright David Stallings seeks to astound
and inform audiences with his new play Dark
Water. / VIA: MTWorks.org

Winner of six Planet Connections Theatre Awards, The Manhattan Theatre Company in New York City's East Village prides itself in supporting dramatic artists who think outside the box and bring new and innovative concepts to the stage to serve as both cultural and political statements. 

Dark Water is no different - implementing the use of puppetry, poetry, complex movement, dance and circus acrobratics (possibly including trapeze, lyra and aeriel fabrics), Stallings seeks to examine the impact of human consumption and carelessness on the global environment.  Surrounding an oil spill off the coast of Lousiana, the bulk of the play is set underwater using victimized animals, including an-over consumptuous seagull that speaks in iambic pentameter to serve as a symbol for the gluttony of man, as the main characters for an allegorical result. 

 

The Manhattan Theatre Company will premiere David Stallings'
Dark Water on March 14th. / VIA: MTWorks.com

Dark Water can be seen from March 14th to March 29th on the Manhattan Theatre Company's mainstage.

Improv Everywhere

When speaking of innovation and unusual, original creativity in the theatre, one simply cannot leave out the profound (and perhaps prolific) acheivements of the now large-scale organization Improv Everywhere.  Since August 2001, this prank-based collective based out of New York City has been staging scenes in public places to delight and, of course, completely baffle their unexpecting audiences. 

Last November, the group sent an 11 year-old boy wearing globally recognizable glasses pushing a cart full of luggage with an owl on top into Penn Station to ask passengers and staff where he could possibly find platform 9 3/4.  The stunt was complete with the boy taking a running start at the pillar between platforms 9 and 10.

The famous Harry Potter on a quest to find Platform 9 3/4 in a
crowded Penn Station. / Via: ImprovEverywhere.com

 

 Many other famous literary and film characters have been let loose on the public by the collective, including Gandalf the Grey, who felt compelled to stand atop Bow Bridge in Central Park to keep pedestrians from passing.

Improv Everywhere also organizes grand-scale stunts.  Perhaps the most impressive of these was the staging of over 200 actors suddenly freezing mid-movement at the exact same time for five minutes in Grand Central Station.

 

Over 200 actors freeze simultaneously in Grand Central Station
for a stunt put on by Improv Everywhere. / Via: ImprovEverywhere.com

 

To say the least, Improv Everywhere certainly lives up to their tag-line: "We Cause Scenes."  To enjoy more of their stunts, check out their website at www.ImprovEverywhere.com.

The 2014 Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony

Never before has theatrical innovation been presented on such a grand scale as was displayed by Russia at the opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.  Determined to put forth a positive and triumphant image in the eyes of the world, Russia spared no expense, spending an unfathomable estimated 50 million dollars on the show.

The opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics is the most
expensive opening ceremony to date, at approx. $50 million. / Via: CNN.com

From 215-ft. horses of light pulling a sun across the sky to an elaborate and massive artistic reconstruction of St. Basil's Cathedral complete with swiveling, air-borne turrets, the ceremony was the most elaborate and expensive opening ceremony to date.  

Perhaps the most innovative and astounding aspect of the production was the stage floor.  132 projectors and 2,640,000 lumens were utilized to transform the floor of Fisht stadium into a tempestuous sea for Peter the Great to sail, a star-filled sky through which a small child could soar and even an entire drawing of the city of St. Petersburg for the cast to march through.  

The floor of Fisht stadium was transformed as part of perhaps the
most astounding technical theatrical production to date./VIA: CNN.com

Despite the political controversy surrounding the games, viewers cannot deny that Russia certainly knows how to put on a show.

Theatre of Drag

In recent years, it is becoming more acceptable in mainstream theatre for shows surrounding gender-bending characters to make it big.

This is most evident in the upcoming premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch starring Neil Patrick Harris on Broadway.

Neil Patrick Harris' provocative poster for
the upcoming production of Hedwig and
the Angry Inch on Broadway

When the musical first premiered Off-Broadway in 1998, no one would have ever dreamed it would make it to Broadway.  The show was simply too quirky, too racy, too alternative to appeal to such large audiences.  Now however, in 2014, creator John Cameron Mitchell's dream comes true with the glam rock drag queen Hedwig set to rock out audiences starting March 29th.

This after the much celebrated success of the exhilarating musical Kinky Boots, which centers around a struggling shoe factory that finds success making boots for drag queens.

The unconventional team of straight man and
drag queen team up to save a factory and rock
audiences in Kinky Boots.

Winner of six Tony Awards, with an award winning score by pop icon Cyndi Lauper, Kinky Boots has shocked theatre lovers around the world with its success on both Broadway and in West End.

Needless to say, the theatre world is becoming more friendly than ever the members of the LGB and finally T community.