November 2nd, 2012 | By Kelly Pyzik, pyzikkel@grinnell.edu | Section: Arts

Neo-Futurism is a movement of theatre that is based on the tenets of speed, brevity, honesty, and utter quirkiness. Last Monday evening, the New York Neo-Futurists performed a show in Flanagan Theatre composed of 30 short plays in 60 minutes entitled Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind.

The show combined improvisation and spontaneity with rehearsed plays. Before being seated, audience members were given a menu with a list of 30 numbered titles of the 30 short plays that would be performed.

At the start of the show, a 60-minute timer was set, and the first play began right away. At the end of each play, a troupe member would immediately call Curtain! and audience members would then call out the number of the next play they wanted to see.

The troupe would pick the number they heard loudest or repeated most, set up for that play, and then begin as quickly as possible. This gave the show a fun, crazy feeling of chaos and unpredictability, and the ever-ticking timer created the motivating, lurking possibility of failure. In fact, the troupe did not get through all thirty plays, but were allowed through a silly loophole to perform the last one, which pleased the audience.

All of the short plays worked in interesting, creative ways with the rules of Neo-Futurismthat the actors are who they are, where they are, at this exact point in time.

In improv, you have to be confident in your ability to think on your feet, you have to be comfortable with who you are because things are always changing. Thats the big challenge, and improv troupes are really special in that regard, said Justin Thomas, Theater.

Thomas felt that the New York Neo-Futurists were able to demonstrate a lot of important skills and ideas to the aspiring theater and dance students at Grinnell.

The Neo-Futurists combine that improv with rehearsed plays, and I have never seen a performance troupe that exudes that level of confidence with who they are and what they do, Thomas said. I think its important for our students to see that.

Often, Thomas observes that students are afraid to fail.

Excerpt from:

The Neo-Future is here