Phone Plays at Humana Festival
Theatre artists use cell phones at Actors' Theater in Louisville.
Performance art based on overheard conversations at the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays in Lousisville, Kentucky.
Between 1999 and 2002, the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors' Theater in Louisville, Kentucky included phone plays in their lineup. Audience members would duck into a phone booth in the lobby and listen to a three-minute conversation. A friend and ex-boss of mine, an annual festival pilgrim, told me the phone plays were consistently delightful; he could hardly believe how much silliness or satire or drama they managed to pack into those overheard snippets.
Louisville has moved on to other short formats, and let's face it -- kids these days haven't even heard of phone booths anyway. Today, if you're interested in facilitated eavesdropping as an art form, you'll have to bring your own phone. And be prepared to walk. It's an urban pastime now.
A few different entities call themselves "The Pedestrian Project", but the one with the domain name -- and whose idea appeals to me most -- offers a Walking Tour for Multiple Voices and Portable Phones. It's a new kind of touring show, based on a conference call, conceived jointly by Jennifer Bainbridge and Shoshana Polanco. As an audience member, you carry a cell phone and listen into various conversations as performers take you for a walk through the city. The first round took place in New York's Lower East Side in August 2005. Take a look at their two-minute video excerpt.
I love this idea and I'm hoping they head out my way soon. No word yet on where and when the project is going next, but I'll let you know everything I hear.
In Part 2, coming soon, I'll tell you about a project started in Toronto that's since moved to Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary. The principle is a little similar, but this one's modular.
