Montclair Theater Company plans mysterious event.
A new project-based theater company, whose name is currently unfinalized, from Montclair is teaming up with Montclair State University and a hand full of coffee shops and tea houses in Montclair, including Starbucks, to bring something completely new to the community.
The theater company works to create “unique theatrical experiences that enable an audience to abandon conventional theater-going (and their seats) and immerse themselves in a fully-developed, captivating theatrical environment,” according to Victor Carinha, co-founder and artistic director of the collective.
According to Carinha, the production is currently purposely delayed as the company has “partnered with Starbucks and [has] an agreement to host this work in locations throughout Montclair and Glen Ridge. The nature of this work is connected through simultaneous interactions, so it is important that [the company is] coordinating the best times for all local coffee houses; therefore, the dates are not currently confirmed.”
The theater company is currently working on a production of Persephone, which is an experience which will “take you on a secret journey love and loss, while involving you in the pursuit of a missing entity,” said Carinha. “The entire piece is done sedentarily, but launches you an opportunity to part-take in an immersive journey on a far larger scale.”
Persephone is a piece set to kick off a larger work that will take place a few months after this event finishes. This piece will involve a woman seated inside a tea house/at a bar booth who will “take you on a secret journey about love and loss; all done sedentarily. The full arch of the story takes seven minutes to complete.”
The process involves a “guest who agrees to participate [who] receives a locket with their beverage and joins the actress; the entire story is laid out through headphones and lends to the idea that this rendezvous is a secret.”
According to Carinha, each location will host a single character from a set of three contained within this narrative. The option to visit each character at different locations is available to participants, and rewarded if done so. “The work itself is very simply structured for the participant (audience member) and frames the narrative for a larger production coming to town in the first few months of 2015,” said Carinha. “In a nutshell, this piece is a marketing work that introduces our company to Montclair.”
Participation in the piece is also free to the public.
The Montclair theater company’s mission is to “produce ground-breaking theatrical ventures blending multiple disciplines to create a compelling form of storytelling using creative and fresh mediums, while fostering positive social commitments to communities,” said Carinha. “Our mission [is] to provide audience members with experiences they have never had before.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login