Private actor, private audience
The lights dim. A panel rises. An actor opens his mouth and directs his monologue straight to you. A crazy dream? Not quite — it’s Theatre for One, a unique performance experience for one actor and one spectator that brings the concept of a one-man show to a whole new level.
Theatre for One is a four-by-eight-foot portable theatre that is coming to Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts (FOFA) Gallery for a four-day residency from September 22 to 25, 2011. Created by Tony Award-winning set designer Christine Jones, BFA 89 (Design for the Theatre), with the support of Department of Theatre professor Ana Cappelluto, the production features one performer playing to one audience member.
Inspired by the peep show booths of Times Square’s infamous past, Theatre for One premiered in May 2010, and received critical acclaim and popular success during a recent run in New York. Theatre for One is intended to intensify the audience-performer connection that is being lost in an era of large-scale productions playing to packed houses of thousands.
“I’m always thinking about the relationship between the audience and the actors,” explains Jones. “I just got to thinking about what would happen if I distilled that relationship to a one-on-one relationship. I hoped it would heighten the experience of the performance.”
Though the innovative concept was born after Jones’s time as a student at Concordia’s Department of Theatre, she collaborated with Cappelluto, whom she met in the Loyola Campus design shops, when developing Theatre for One’s initial designs and the first prototype for a Princeton University workshop in 2007. In fact, both Jones and Cappelluto refer to the production as “made by many” — they explain that Theatre for One wouldn’t have happened without the input of designers, technicians and actors.
In order to bring Theatre for One to Times Square for its 2010 premiere, Jones collaborated with Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano of Lot-ek Architects to mirror the pebbled black walls and steel edged construction of traditional theatrical road show boxes. The intimate space includes all the usual theatre paraphernalia, complete with sound and lighting equipment and Vaudevillian red decor. The success of Theatre for One also hinges on the input of the performers, who are instrumental in creating new theatrical pieces specifically for the tiny venue.
Theatre for One played again in June 2011 in Times Square to rave reviews (see image at right). The Associated Press likened the memorable experience to being in a “confession booth, peep show or even an elevator.” The New York Times cautioned audience members that the intimate experience would “settle somewhere in your soul.”
Cappelluto also reveals how Theatre for One attendees in New York had varied and profound reactions to their experience in the space. “Theatre for One reduces theatre to its essence,” she said. “It’s an incredible one-on-one experience.”
The Montreal cast includes Steve Cuiffo, Tasha Lawrence, Danette Mackay, Dallas Roberts and Harry Standjofski. These artists of different disciplines will perform five-to-10-minute original music and theatre pieces in English and French.
When: September 22, 23 and 24 from 7 to 11 p.m., and on September 25 from 2 to 5 p.m.
Where: Sculpture Garden Courtyard of Concordia University’s FOFA Gallery in the Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (1515 Ste-Catherine St. W.)
Admission is free of charge. First come, first seated.
Related links:
• Theatre for One
• FOFA Gallery
• Christine Jones profile
• “Theatre Alumna Wins Tony Award”
• Faculty of Fine Arts