By Mad Forest dramaturg, Hannah Hessel (@hanvnah)

 

Following the opening night performance of Mad Forest, the lobby was buzzing with conversation. There’s nothing new about an opening night reception being loud but there was something new that night. A friend noted to me at the end of the night that it’s the only opening night she could remember where all the chatter was about the play. 

 

People want to talk about Mad Forest. 

 

We want people to talk about Mad Forest. We always want people to talk about our productions. That’s one of the reasons we make the producing choice’s we make. It’s the reason we have the OpenForum discussion series, it’s the reason we have this blog. At Forum, the work doesn’t just happen on the stage, it happens in the audience. We always hope that the work on our stages leaves audiences with questions that they want to ask. Theatre is a questioning art. Since it happens both communally and individually, no theatrical experience is completely shared. 

 

The communal individualism is even clearer in our production of Mad Forest where seated in the round no audience member experiences the same thing. And then you have a playwright like Caryl Churchill who writes her plays to force the questions, not explain her own answers. She was quoted early in her career as saying:

 

“Playwrights don’t give answers, they ask questions...We need to find new questions, which may help us answer the old ones or make them unimportant and this means new subjects and new form.” (Churchill, 1960).  

 

In Mad Forest she lives up to her quote. The form and the subject both implore the audience to think, to question and to turn the questions inward. 

 

All of this is to say Mad Forest is the perfect OpenForum play. There’s one downside though: the play is long and the last metro leaves at 11:46pm.  This leaves under a half hour (leaving time to go to the restroom and walk to the metro) for an OpenForum discussion on our typical Thursday night OpenForum. Sure, some folks have cars, some folks bike and some folks live in Silver Spring. They can stay later and keep the discussion going. But I do none of those things. I need to catch that metro. I’ll be there though. I’ll be leading the OpenForum audience discussion sessions but they will be short. And we need more time - there are too many questions, too many thoughts, too many opportunities for audience members to connect to each other and to the work. 

 

So, OpenForum blog readers here I turn to you. I need your help trying to figure out the best way to turn our OpenForum discussions electronic. I want to find a way to have the discussions on the audiences own time. To let them get home, check in on the kids, get a drink, do whatever their routine is and still have the opportunity to check in, to ask their questions and to connect. 

 

The easiest option is asking people to comment on a blog entry like this one, or asking them to comment on a thread in facebook discussions. But neither of those options feel right to me (but don’t let that stop you from commenting below). Here’s why they don’t feel right: OpenForum is a safe space. When you are in one of those discussions it feels personal, private, what you say you are sharing only with the people right in front of you - they people who experienced the production with you that night. The internet? Not such a safe space. What you say will be there forever, anyone can read it. Though you can say things anonymously, you aren’t creating connections that way - and we all know that people who feel shy about sharing will not comment, which means important community voices are left unheard. 

 

So other options? Google+ Hangout? Would that make sense? It wouldn’t allow for people to join in on their own time, it would have to be scheduled. 

 

Here’s my thought: email. Simple and sweet. You want to participate? Send your email to me at hannah@forumtheatredc.org. For every five emails I get I will send out an email starting the conversation chain. If you participate, this means you will suddenly have a private conversation in your inbox with me (or other Forum company members) an four other audience members you may or may not know.  You can ask your questions and hear other people’s thoughts in a non-public space.  Plus, you can still make it home before midnight!

 

What do you think? Let us know below or by email. 

 

Want to participate? Send an email to hannah@forumtheatredc.org and in the subject line write “OpenForum.” Don’t want to share your real email? Create a fake one. It’s easy!