Alternative Theatre

Who has the right to define what theatre is?

There is so much more to theatre than we think. Because there’s so much more to the performing arts. When we think about theatre, we’re generally thinking about plays and musicals. But I think there’s so much more to theatre than that. Two of my favorite forms of performing arts are opera and ballet. And they hit me exactly the way a stereotypical idea of theatre does.

I don’t think it’s as clear cut as people think. And not just because it’s a different form of performing arts. There is just as much a story in an opera or ballet (or Cirque du Soleil show, or whatever else we can file under this header) as in a typical play. It’s how these art forms have managed to survive in a world where most things are pretty much handed to us. Even if we have to read subscript during an opera, or read the story summary of the ballet, we’re being told a story. We’re watching things unfold. This is the characters’ lives that we’re being allowed to watch, just like a play.

On top of this, there’s more and more crossovers in art forms. The first opera I saw live was A Midsummer Night’s Dream, arguably one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Obviously this was a much more modern opera (the 1960s) than a lot of the classics, such as La bohème (1890s) or Madame Butterfly (early 1900s). The world of opera is changing as we know it. Every year, Opera Philadelphia runs a festival with newer and more experimental pieces. Last season I saw a beautiful rendition of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven sung by a woman, referring to a woman lover. Next season, we’re seeing 10 Days in a Madhouse, based on the true story of Nellie Bly. Definitely looking forward to that one.

There is also the fine line between opera and operetta. If you’ve ever seen a Gilbert and Sullivan show (The Mikado, H.M.S Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, to name a few), you know there’s a lot of singing and very little talking. In my experience, that gets the musical theatre brand a good amount of the time. But isn’t that basically what you look at for in an opera? Is the difference that we’re not hearing the operatic voices and tones? Again, who draws that line?

Opera is one thing. Ballet is something entirely different. With no talking, it’s helpful to go in knowing what the story of the ballet is. That doesn’t mean you’re not going to understand it as you watch. With a properly done ballet, you’re definitely going to. Of course, it does help to have the history. It’s how we end up with such iconic pieces as The Nutcracker. I’ve seen The Nutcracker about a million times by now, and I still love watching the story unfold. It’s something that transcends. Kids can love it, adults can love it. It’s an alternative type of theatre at its finest.

We can get so much out of a ballet. I think it’s fantastic that we can enter a whole different world, just like we do with a play, but without the talking or means of narration. I don’t think a lot of people understand that about ballet. People have this preconceived notion of tutus and pointe shoes. I think people have a lot of preconceived notions about ballet in general. But that doesn’t take away from the wonder of it. Those dancers have a million jobs to do all at once. If any of them drop the ball, we lose so much. I don’t think people really think about that when looking at ballet. It’s a whole different type of storytelling. It’s theatre.

So what else? Well, there are so many different types of performing arts. I mentioned Cirque du Soleil up there…that’s definitely another type of alternative theatre. Now, I’ve only been to one Cirque du Soleil show, but damn that’s inventive storytelling. What those people can do is totally astonishing. They push their bodies to the limit, performing completely insane physical acts, and we still get a story from it. The show I saw, Amaluna, was loosely based on The Tempest (my favorite Shakespeare play). It was beautiful. I got the souvenir program (I collect them), and reading about the different parts of the story was so cool.

There’s probably more out there than I can even think of, really. We live in a world where there are so many different types of art forms, and so many forms of performing arts. Is it really fair to say what is and what isn’t theatre? I think, if I’m sitting down to be told a story, I’m experiencing some sort of theatre. If I’m walking away feeling like I just witnessed something amazing, something that changed me in some way, I’m experiencing some sort of theatre. If there was performing and costumes and movement and sounds and things to take away from…

…well, you know.

#opera #cirquedusoleil #ballet #shakespeare #opinion #alternativetheatre #operetta