Open Theater
Founded by Joseph Chaikin, who had acted for The Living Theater for several years, The Open Theater was a stable and adventurous Ensemble that made influential work throughout this period. Chaikin's THE PRESENCE OF THE ACTOR is a beautiful book, both for its anti-commercialism and for the rigor of its thinking about acting. The seminal idea is of TRANSFORMATION which began as a kind of game in which actors changed parts (repeatedly) through a scene, often playing through a series of archetypes in quick succession. PIG IRON has been much influenced by this (and they worked with Chaikin on SHUT EYE before he died).
posted by Mark @ 6:10 AM
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transformation:
The OPEN THEATR began to use TRANSFORMATION in exercises, moving the actors through a variety of archetypal roles. In plays by Jean-Claude Van Italie and Megan Terry, the actors were asked to shift from part to part. Sometimes the part were cultural archetypes (the mom, the soldier) sometimes they were icons, sonmetimes even objects. What inteerests me most about these epxeriments is that IN BETWEEN playing the mom and the soldier--for example--the actor is COMMITTED TO the transforming process in which s/he is neither mom nor soldier. This means s/he is playing WITH SPECIFICITY but without any understandable object. Theoretically, this TRANSFORMING can be extended and made into a universe/performance that exists IN BETWEEN, specificity without reference.
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