Derek and i just got back from an ultra-inspiring trip to the Summit of Ensemble Theaters in San Francisco. Making friends, strengthening old friendships, drinking, talking theatre, drinking some more, talking more theatre (louder this time) and in general having a crazy-exhausting time validating the hard work we all do as artist-driven theatre.
A few of the things i know caught both of us that will come into the life of Sandbox (and .faust – and June of Arc for that matter) is the insanely clever dichotomy of presentation styles we saw with two terrific companies whose work we saw.
Theater of Yugen is a great ensemble in San Francisco and use the highly refined aesthetic of
classic Japanese noh to tell stories in a way completely alien to most Western audiences. And in doing so, create a blissful distance where you’re pulled in completely to the performance, but always aware that these are performers in front of your eyes.
Their use of live music and transformative/found object masks is honestly shockingly effective.
Playwright and Yugen collaborator Erik Ehn put out a metaphor of noh theatre that we can bring apply to any sort of highly-stylized art (including the craziness that brews in the Sandbox). Erik said watching noh for the first time is like a baby’s first bite of chocolate. After nothing but warm milk and stewed carrots for his entire life, the explosion of flavors is strange, overwhelming and not completely pleasurable. But hopefully, that first bite develops a curiosity and eventually – a chocolate addiction.
The night after seeing Yugen’s excellent remounting of their play Pretty, we saw a production by Fool’s Proof Theatre from Liverpool, England. 
What our new friends from across the water showed us was another intensely effective manipulating of presentation style. Ben, Britt & Mary would fade in and out of character/actor/human performance styles so easily that you would get caught watching one of them watch the action on stage as if they were performing the watching. There was no precious frame of the action and they were in and out and messing it all up lovely.
So expect Sandbox to be stealing… er… learning from these folks in the future. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from us on these guys and all the other exciting goings-on that went on in San Francisco. Well… not all the exciting goings-on. What happens on the party bus stays on the party bus.
- ryan
