As the editor of the Culture department at The New York Times, Gilbert Cruz relies on critics, reporters and editors in every field of the arts for their expertise. Now we’re bringing his questions — and our writers’ answers — to you. Currently on his mind: how to enjoy streaming theater, which he posed to Jesse Green, the co-chief theater critic.
Gilbert asks: Jesse, before the pandemic, I’d go to the theater several times a month in New York City and one of the things that I most appreciated about the experience was the forced focus — no phones, no distractions, pure absorption. Since the lockdown began, I’ve tried several times at home to watch Zoom productions, or even filmed productions like stuff from the National Theater, and I find myself largely unable to sit down and commit. What is my problem?
Jesse answers: It’s not just your problem. One of the things we’ve all lost is the blurring of public and private, of self and community, that theater traditionally plays on. Everything is private now because we’re all stuck in our homes. If you’re by yourself in a comfy chair with the phone nearby and the lights blaring, that blur is impossible. To mitigate the problem, I turn the lights down, shut off notifications and sit on the weird sofa no one ever sits on. It helps to watch with someone else. Or maybe you just need some zippier fare?
Gilbert: I tried to start with zippier fare, so many months ago. I recall trying to watch James Corden in“One Man, Two Guvnors,” which by all accounts is a madcap time! And my mind just kept drifting and drifting … Didn’t make it more than 20-30 minutes. Have you seen that there is there a certain type of theater production that works best online?
Jesse: Yes, and “One Man, Two Guvnors” is not it. That production was never intended to be experienced remotely. The online theater I’ve found most successful is designed for the medium, and sometimes even for the specific platform. In both Richard Nelson’s hourlong, contemplative five-hander “What Do We Need to Talk About?” and Noelle Viñas’s heartbreaking 10-minute monologue “Zoom Intervention,” families communicate via Zoom — and we watch them as if on Zoom ourselves. The form and the content are working together, not at odds.
Gilbert: Yeah, I suppose you sort of need to be in the theater to feel the collective giddiness that the audience of “Two Guvnors” seemed to be experiencing. It makes sense that Zoom-based theater would feel natural; you’re steering into the curve there, using a format of communication that many of us have had to become quickly comfortable with. But what other genres or forms should I be looking for, then? I want to be successful here!
Jesse: One-person works in general — like the ones that appear every week as part of the ongoing “Viral Monologues” series, are a good bet. When an actor seems to be speaking directly to you, even if you know it’s an illusion, you feel a version of the intimacy live theater thrives on. (It’s an illusion in the theater too!) Physical comedy is another genre that seems to work well, at least when conceived for the computer’s rectangle instead of the stage’s. (Bill Irwin and Christopher Fitzgerald in “In-Zoom” are delightful.) The avant-garde and surreal, never having depended much on traditional presentation, are thriving. But I have a sense that’s not what you’re looking for.
Gilbert: I feel terrible saying this, but I think what I might be looking for (in part at least) is short-form theater? If the debate over the blurring lines between film and TV involve, at least in part, length versus compactness, what is the type of in-and-out “theater” I can experience online that I probably would be less inclined to do in person because I would be expecting “a night out”? One of the things that most moved me early in quarantine was watching Andrew Scott do “Sea Wall.” And that’s, what, an hour?
Jesse: Just 30 minutes! I get your point, though: Theater, done right, asks a lot of you, which is one reason we typically leave the distractions of home to experience it. So let’s go bite-size. The monologues I keep pushing make a great all-you-can-eat buffet. If you prefer the feeling of multiperson plays, comedy is a good bet, like Jordan E. Cooper’s 14-minute “Mama Got a Cough.” And though full-length musicals are at this point pretty hopeless online, individual songs suit the medium well. If you didn’t watch “Take Me to the World,” the Sondheim 90th birthday celebration, you should sample it. Or this rendition of “Being Alive,” from the Antonyo Awards. Or this Zoomtastic “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from “Hairspray.” Five minutes of joy before you check the wash.
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September 01, 2020 at 09:00PM
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Love Theater? Jesse Green Recommends Streaming Options - The New York Times
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