Audience and Staging: Reversal

An experiment in audience and staging, we created a performance which was a play on typical audience and performer roles. Since our presentation was the first after lunch, we used the time given to us (1:30pm) as relevant to the act. Posting a sign declaring we were "Out To Lunch" we proceeded to eat a very formal lunch in the car park several feet away from the classroom window. A few well placed binoculars allowed our classmates to zoom in on the details of the performance, standing on chairs and making space for each other at the window, successfully converting them into voyeurs. On the other hand, we continued with a 20 minute spontaneous performance, despite the snow, drinking wine, being served by our hapless waitress, and enjoying our cross-dressed roles. Reversal is the main theme here, where we reversed the stage from inside to outside, the audience into voyeurs peeping out of windows, and ourselves cross-dressing to emphasize the concept.

The video below was taken by Tomasz Radeg, someone from the audience:

It's interesting to see how several people from the audience did leave the classroom to have a better look, or even listen to parts of our performance. Since we didn't leave any instructions, it was up to the audience to behave as they wished. For the purpose of documentation we recorded our performance from a nearby car, giving a completely different point of view to the performance. Edited and compiled by Yves Findling.

Photos by Alina Arefyeva:

Photos by Samantha Else: