I am currently reading What Is A Playhouse? by Callan Davies (Routledge, 2023). If you are an early modern theatre geek, definitely check this book out. One of the focuses of Davies book is to catalogue and describe performance spaces other than the purpose-built theatres that we might normally identify as playhouses, such as the Globe and the Blackfriars. Touring performance was a regular practice for the acting companies of early modern England, and so when 21st century Shakespeare companies like the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company tour and adapt spaces for the purpose of performance, we are actually engaging in a performance tradition that goes back to Shakespeare’s own lifetime.
Davies writes “There is substantial evidence — perhaps the most plentiful in surviving records — of play and performance taking place in hall or room venues not specifically set aside for public playing but adaptable to it” (43). He describes the frequent use of multi-purpose spaces for play performances, meaning that an audience might experience a play performance in the same kind of space where other forms of entertainment as well as public meetings and other community events took place.
Pigeon Creek recently performed in the beautiful upstairs space of the Harris Building in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, pictured above as set up for our production of Measure for Measure. This is a space that also hosts weddings and other events. Built in 1892, it originally housed a fraternal organization called the Knights of Pythias. While its architecture was not originally designed for public play performance, it is, as Davies says “adaptable.”
Our 2024 season will feature a number of touring venues that we transform into performance spaces. We hope that one of the things that our audience can find joy in at our performances is the transformation of a space that doesn’t seem at first glance to be a theatre into a temporary and ephemeral playhouse.
Please note that this entry is cross-posted from the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company’s production blog at http://www.pcshakespeare.com
Before the pandemic closed it semi-permanently (it will be coming back in a new location later this year!), the Dog Story Theater was Pigeon Creek’s Grand Rapids home. The space was a small storefront theater, which in our thrust stage configuration held about 65 audience members. I often hear both theater practitioners and audience members talk about spaces like this as if they are something that a producing organization settles for, as if everyone’s ideal choice of theater space would be a huge proscenium stage with a 1700 seat auditorium. Ever wondered why Pigeon Creek specifically seeks out spaces like the Dog Story Theater and our other touring venues? Let’s talk about why a performing organization like Pigeon Creek would seek out smaller, unconventional performance spaces.
Proscenium stages create a distance and a division between the actors and the audience. If you don’t know the term “proscenium,” it refers to the archway like a picture frame that you see in what we in the modern US think of as a conventional or traditional theater. This type of theater has audience seats which all face the stage from the same side, this physical archway that separates actors and audience, and often a long distance between audience seats and the stage. These stages have really only been standard theater architecture since the mid to late 1800s, and earlier forms of plays like ancient Greek theater or Shakespeare were actually performed in theaters where the audience was on multiple sides of the stage. Proscenium stages became the standard because they contain wing space (at the sides of the stage) and fly space (at the top of the stage) where technological elements are hidden from the audience. They also became standard around the time that electrical lights were starting to be introduced into theater spaces and it became possible to turn the lights off in the audience’s part of the theater while leaving lights on on the stage. Proscenium stages are excellent for theater productions with large scale spectacle such as very large casts, dance choreography that uses a lot of space and large patterns, epic sets that need to change quickly (think Les Miserables), and lighting design that requires a large number of lighting instruments. That does not mean, however, that proscenium stages are the ideal physical space for all kinds of theater.
2. Storefront theaters and other smaller, non-proscenium spaces create an intimate relationship between actors and audience. Play productions that focus on intensity of character relationship and seek to put the audience right up close to the action work extremely well in storefront spaces, If a production uses direct audience address and wants to blur the line between the audience’s space and the physical space of the play (as all of Pigeon Creek’s productions do!), then a space that is flexible in terms of its set-up is an added bonus. In a storefront space, we can put the audience on multiple sides of the playing space, giving everyone a vantage point in which they can notice fine details of the actors’ performances.
3. Storefront theaters and other smaller, non-proscenium spaces create an intimate relationship between audience members. A recent article in Virginia Living described performances at the American Shakespeare Center (where audiences sit in a thrust configuration and are in the same light as the actors) as “A community immediately made, all part of the same conversation.” In unconventional theater spaces, audience members can often see the faces of other audience members across the way. Vocal responses like laughter and gasps ripple through the audience because they are in such close proximity to each other as well as to the actors. That feeling of immediate community who are all sharing this one, unique performance experience is heightened in a storefront theater space.
4. Non-proscenium spaces give every audience member a unique view of the stage. A proscenium stage is configured to make sure that every audience member sees the same thing. A non-proscenium space gives every audience member a slightly different view of the stage. You could attend the same play 5 different times in a small storefront theater, and see a slightly different story depending on where you are sitting. At Pigeon Creek, our actors and directors have special training in staging scenes for an audience who sees the action from multiple sides. The goal isn’t to give everyone the same view, but to make the view interesting from every vantage point.
5. Storefront theaters make designers and directors get creative. Theater artist Orson Welles famously said “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” In other words, having to work within constraints fosters creativity and innovation. The limitations of a smaller space which may not have been originally constructed for theatrical performance make set and lighting designers, fight and dance choreographers, and directors come up with ideas that they might never have conceived if they were working within the seeming comfort of a conventional proscenium space. These artists are less able to rely on conventional theater wisdom about how to design or create stage pictures and movement.
6. The transformation of space is delightful. There is something wonderful about seeing a space used in an unexpected way, with walking into something that was once a storefront, or is usually a classroom or a library or a restaurant or a park, and seeing it transformed into the setting for a play. It engages a sort of double-consciousness in us as audience members, where we can see the magic and the thing underneath it at the same time.
The next time you come to one of our performances at what seems like an unconventional space, maybe you will notice some of these features that make those spaces our first choice for how people experience our shows!
For all my friends and colleagues who do their work in making theatre happen on shoestring budgets in small, regional communities. I know that people continually diminish your work and treat it as if it isn’t “real.” I could tell you stories of the truly appalling things people have said to me, and I know you hear the same things. So here are some thoughts for you:
I see you hustling as hard as you can to pay your artists, and to create reasons and means for artists to stay in your communities.
I see you serving your region’s audiences with programming they wouldn’t otherwise get.
I see your respect for your artists. I see that you allow for their family lives and their day jobs, if they have them, to shape the structure of how they work with you. And that you don’t treat them as less professional because they have these other aspects of their lives.
I see the care and reverence with which you treat the work of creating and telling stories.
I see the sorcery you perform on tiny budgets, and the creativity and imagination that comes from these limitations.
I see how you struggle to get your local media to pay attention and how your local media outlets continue to eliminate arts and culture coverage.
I see how you bring to life unusual, unconventional performance spaces, and I understand that the use of unusual spaces is a feature, not a bug. These spaces are physical parts of your community, and they create intimate, immediate experiences for your audiences.
I see how you help young artists grow by providing a place where they can treat theatre as their focus.
I see your belief that your community’s audiences deserve the highest quality arts and cultural programming.
I see your dedication to the idea that the arts are part of what makes us human, and that they should be part of people’s everyday lives.
When you are overwhelmed and stressed and trying to decide whether to go on with this work, know that I am thinking of you, and whatever you decide, your work has been worthy and worthwhile.
I am an actor, director, teacher, dramaturge, and theatre administrator working in Michigan. I primarily work with a company that I helped to found, and where I now serve as executive director. I am going to write about a few things here. One of those things is theatre spaces (mostly non-traditional spaces) and how to use them. Another of those things is what it is like to work in theatre in a small, regional market. Another is the current practice of producing Shakespeare and other early modern plays. If you are interested in those topics, please come back and read!
Space Enough 