Day 7 - Theatre Geekfest

Or The Prague Quadrennial as it is known to outsiders is what Clambake wishes it could be. It is an international symposium of theatre folk, both student and professional showing the best that their country has to offer in design, direction, performance, etc. The event is held every four years at the industrial palace - a glass and steel monument from the turn of the last century. At the geekfest, we saw a movent-based performance of Midsummer, heard a lecture on designing for found and non-traditional spaces, and saw megaphors a-plenty. Some of them were even realized! And worked! (sort of) What is a megaphor, you ask? It's a super-size metaphor on steroids, of course. Basically it was a term we and our design class back at UW came up to describe when a design concept/imagery was so heavy handed as to make watching a play impossible. We were all a bit guilty at one point of that sin (some more than others...wont mention any names), but luckily we made those mistakes during Studio class and managed to make newer and better mistakes on our realized productions.

Anyway, although there were a handful of megaphors to be seen at the festival, there were also a few that blew our socks away and a few that were simply inspired. The outpouring of ideas present at the Quadrennial and the many different viewpoints simply reminded the both of us why we do theatre.

This years main theme centered around Aristophenes' The Birds, so alot of the submissions centered around this play and the many takes and perspectives of doing the show. There was a heavy emphasis on technology, as some countries approached their design presentations using video/digital media. One such had the viewer sit and wear a headpiece and view the work through a bird head. It was a person playing in the snow with a birdsuit. Part of the stage production also called for holographic wings with a birdlike exoskeleton that the actor wore. There were also viewpoints on Utopia/Dystopia that I found interesting - in terms of there were equal points made for embracing technology and also points made for its misuse. Again, lots of big ideas in that small pavilion - enough to make ones head swim.

Another design theme was packaging - almost all the presentation booths had as a design element in their presentation the idea of packaging. The main theatre/lecture hall was this gigantic scaffolding which was covered up by packing boxes - kinda brilliant but I also kept wondering whose job it was to fasten each of those boxes together (since there were no evidence of it on the exterior - someone had to open each box and staple it to the next one, at least that is what I was hoping for). There was a really cool presentation of Chekhov's work that forced the viewer to put on rubber galoshes to walk on the pond liner that had water in it. I thought this picture of those rubber shoes and the umbrellas made a nice picture.

Another exhibit from Hungary had the viewer go into their booth and be photographed, identified, and basically go through the bureaucracy of applying for a visa to see further on to the exhibit, only to be run through red tape, or just outright rejected and not allowed to view it. Bonus points for the people there who took their jobs seriously and played their parts well. Here we both are with our rejected visas after having been in the exhibit filling out applications and getting our pictures taken for 10 minutes.


Although there was alot of inspired presentations, the one for Japan took the cake...they had a sushi bar with each of the designs on an individual plate, much like those sushi restaurants with the conveyor belts (sadly they remained motionless - probably wise since no one would be able to read the bios and ideas). There was quite an individuality to the work, and a statement on the idea of sushi preparation becoming so mechanized and processed that the individuality of the makers were being put on the sidelines - MEGAPHORE...but executed quite well.

Czech Republic had this really cool puppet showcase that had interactive parts where the audience became part of the show, or was in contact with the puppets. Then you could go around and see how the mechanisms worked and how the puppets were made. Kinda great in the low tech spectrum, and just great in the imagination involved and the wonder of theatre magic in a small scale.

Last but not least...a picture from UW of their production of The 3 Birds...sadly there were only two submissions, both press photos of the show - if we just didn't have to contend with Clambake (or the headache of shipping things this far), maybe we could have had a stronger presence. Oh well, kudos to Steven, Martin, Melinda, and Tamara though!