Theater Preview: Exquisite Corpse Plays Creativity Game
by Bryan Rourke | Journal Staff Writer | Thursday, January 22, 2009
The Exquisite Corpse Plays is presented through next week at Perishable Theatre in Providence.
An old parlor game becomes a new stage performance: The Exquisite Corpse Plays.
The production, which opens tonight at Perishable Theatre in Providence and runs through next weekend, is presented by Elemental Theatre, now in its sixth season. The concept of the show is collaboration and improvisation. In this case, two playwrights take turns writing scenes. When one finishes writing one scene, the other starts another –– knowing only a small component of the previous scene that’s to be carried over.
“We wanted to see if the plays would connect,” says Dave Rabinow, who collaborated in the writing with Alex Platt. “And they did in interesting, unpredictable and nonlinear ways.”
The Exquisite Corpse Plays is 10 plays in one. Rabinow and Platt, who periodically perform as actors at the Gamm, each wrote five scenes. Then Peter Sampieri, the play’s director, who directs at the Gamm, put them together.
“His job was to shape it into something cohesive,” Rabinow says. “It’s not just 10 plays, but one single story.”
“Exquisite corpse” is not just the name of this production, but of a type of artistic parlor game created by surrealist artists in the 1920s. One artist would draw or write something on a piece of paper, which would be folded, revealing only a small portion of what was created. And then the paper would be passed to the next person to add on to it.
Elemental Theatre has done that with a play, which they’ve decided to perform for the public.
“That’s what we do,” Rabinow says. “For us, that’s the fun part, sharing this stuff and working it into a fashion that is exciting for an audience and is good theater.”
As director, Sampieri provided the unifying, overriding premise for the 10 plays. A collection of writings by a late surrealist playwright are discovered in a box in an abandoned building in France that’s about to be demolished. On the front of the notebook in which the writings are found is a title, The Exquisite Corpse.
Platt and Rabinow each took two to three days writing a scene before exchanging the writing responsibility, with the whole project being completed in a month.
“We had to trust that the first or second idea we had would take us somewhere. As a writer it’s really exciting when your writing surprises you.”
So this is improvisational collaborative playwriting. And there was no plan at the outset of what was to be expressed, or even what general nature the collaboration was to take. That was the discovery process.
“There are a lot of really funny moments. But there are a lot of serious moments, and sometimes they’re back-to-back.”
The production involves a cast of seven. And it does have a central message, although Rabinow admits its creators had to look for it, just as audiences will.
“The production, I think, is saying that the act of creation is one of the most important things we can do. The act of questioning is probably our greatest responsibility as artists. It says that art has room for everything.”
The Exquisite Corpse Plays is presented through next week at Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire St., Providence. Shows are today at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m., and next Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and next Sunday at 2 p.m. To reserve tickets, $15, call (401) 447-3001 or info@elementaltheatre.org.
www.projo.com
The URL link to this article is no longer functional. We have reproduced the text of the article here. Any errors are the responsibility of Elemental Theatre.
The Exquisite Corpse Plays is presented through next week at Perishable Theatre in Providence.
An old parlor game becomes a new stage performance: The Exquisite Corpse Plays.
The production, which opens tonight at Perishable Theatre in Providence and runs through next weekend, is presented by Elemental Theatre, now in its sixth season. The concept of the show is collaboration and improvisation. In this case, two playwrights take turns writing scenes. When one finishes writing one scene, the other starts another –– knowing only a small component of the previous scene that’s to be carried over.
“We wanted to see if the plays would connect,” says Dave Rabinow, who collaborated in the writing with Alex Platt. “And they did in interesting, unpredictable and nonlinear ways.”
The Exquisite Corpse Plays is 10 plays in one. Rabinow and Platt, who periodically perform as actors at the Gamm, each wrote five scenes. Then Peter Sampieri, the play’s director, who directs at the Gamm, put them together.
“His job was to shape it into something cohesive,” Rabinow says. “It’s not just 10 plays, but one single story.”
“Exquisite corpse” is not just the name of this production, but of a type of artistic parlor game created by surrealist artists in the 1920s. One artist would draw or write something on a piece of paper, which would be folded, revealing only a small portion of what was created. And then the paper would be passed to the next person to add on to it.
Elemental Theatre has done that with a play, which they’ve decided to perform for the public.
“That’s what we do,” Rabinow says. “For us, that’s the fun part, sharing this stuff and working it into a fashion that is exciting for an audience and is good theater.”
As director, Sampieri provided the unifying, overriding premise for the 10 plays. A collection of writings by a late surrealist playwright are discovered in a box in an abandoned building in France that’s about to be demolished. On the front of the notebook in which the writings are found is a title, The Exquisite Corpse.
Platt and Rabinow each took two to three days writing a scene before exchanging the writing responsibility, with the whole project being completed in a month.
“We had to trust that the first or second idea we had would take us somewhere. As a writer it’s really exciting when your writing surprises you.”
So this is improvisational collaborative playwriting. And there was no plan at the outset of what was to be expressed, or even what general nature the collaboration was to take. That was the discovery process.
“There are a lot of really funny moments. But there are a lot of serious moments, and sometimes they’re back-to-back.”
The production involves a cast of seven. And it does have a central message, although Rabinow admits its creators had to look for it, just as audiences will.
“The production, I think, is saying that the act of creation is one of the most important things we can do. The act of questioning is probably our greatest responsibility as artists. It says that art has room for everything.”
The Exquisite Corpse Plays is presented through next week at Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire St., Providence. Shows are today at 8 p.m. and tomorrow at 2 p.m., and next Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and next Sunday at 2 p.m. To reserve tickets, $15, call (401) 447-3001 or info@elementaltheatre.org.
www.projo.com
The URL link to this article is no longer functional. We have reproduced the text of the article here. Any errors are the responsibility of Elemental Theatre.