Disturbance

When I think of disturbance in the theatre world, I think of the performers in New Orleans that put on a show across from Jackson Square. In an amphitheater a group of performers dance, do tricks and perform comedy, which attracts a crowd. I view it as disturbance because it is set up in a public place, where people are walking by. Usually a crowd of people are sitting in the bleachers watching by the end of it. One time I was in New Orleans with my family and ended up sitting down to watch them perform. They asked for volunteers to go up and my mother was selected among a few other audience members. The performers joked around with them, had them in a conga line, and for the grand finale, had them all laying on the ground, while one one of the guys jumped over the line of people. I was a little frightened for my mother's life, but mostly laughing really hard and taking pictures. I find that disturbance in our society is usually something to take pictures of or tweet about. A lot of times when someone does something really crazy, in class, in a restaurant, on the street, I find that people around me are taking pictures or my friends are tweeting about it. It's interesting to see what kind of disturbances are tweet worthy and documented by the average iPhone user or the press. So to bring theatre into the 21st century, my idea is to integrate a form of media. Perform a play that stirs people up and has them live tweeting the performance or has a newspaper writing a review. I think that in our society today, the media is a huge part of any profession. I think that the theatre industry should jump on board. The theatre community can't control what people talk about on social media, but they can encourage and promote it using hashtags and a social media campaign. I think this would be the most effective way to bring about the social change that certain plays are aiming to accomplish. The more people hear about it, the more people the message reaches.