Performance for an Audience of One Comes to Seattle

Late last month, The New York Times rans an article on "theatre for audiences of one," a trend, mostly originating in Europe over the last few years, of companies that produce work that's meant to experienced by one person at a time. The reason the article came out was that a pair of interesting shows--Aaron Landsman's Appointment and Dominic Huber's Hotel Savoy--would be opening in September in New York.

But the trend's been going strong for a while now, and Seattle's already seen a fair share of work that explores an almost uncomfortable level of intimacy with the audience. In 2009, the Belgian company Ontroend Goed presented their intensely intimate show The Smile Off Your Face at (or during) Giant Magnet. I didn't get see the show, in which audience members are one by one blindfolded and led through a labyrinth of sensory experiences, but the several people I know who did swear it was an incredible experience.

More recently, choreographer KT Niehoff played with performances for a single audience member as a component of her show/project A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light, selecting more than 30 people from the community who applied to have one of her company members develop a solo just for them (however, the solos were performed in public, for whoever wanted to show up).

The point is, it's a fascinating idea and one rife with possibilities (and also pitfalls). Breaking down the barrier between audience and performer is one of the things you hear artists talking about all the time, but often to limited effect. (And certainly, performing for one audience member at a time isn't the most cost-effective production schedule you could come up with.) But one-on-one performance, whether customized to the viewer or forcing the viewer into an intense interaction with the work is a novel way of shattering that barrier.

The next iteration of performance for an audience of one is starting up this week with choreographer/performer Asimina Chremos's lighstspace/shadowplace at Gallery 1412 on Capitol Hill. Chremos is the current artist-in-residence at Project: Space Available, an ambitious residency program launched by movement artist Vanessa DeWolf and dancer/choreographer Monica Mata Gilliam to provide a space for artists to simply sit and create, allowing them (hopefully) to explore producing work in a different way.

Chremos will be performing lightspace/shadowspace Thursday through Monday (see the flyer image for times). In order to schedule a time to see the performance, email projectspaceavailable(at)gmail(dot)com to RSVP; there is a $10 suggested donation.