2011

In 1837, 23 year old Georg Buchner died before finishing his final play Woyzeck, based on an actual murder. The text of Woyzeck was found in fragmentary form, the narrative order of the scenes having never been determined due to mishandling. 

This production updated and reset the scenes from their original setting to a depression-era sideshow somewhere in America. Each night's production asked the audience to create a one of a kind sequence for those unordered scenes by placing a corresponding Tarot card in a linear narrative arrangement thereby creating a unique story based on the choices of that night's audience.

One of the most important aspects of this production was the ability to blur the lines of conventional theater. In order to fully submerge the audiences' experience into the sideshow world of Woyzeck, their sense of reality, time, direction, and space had to be dislocated. Certain "expected" theatrical conventions had to be omitted or edited. The visual landscape had to funnel the viewers' attention and curiosity into the sideshow world. The instant the audience stepped into the space the machinery of the show was all around them, grinding on as if it had existed long before they arrived. They only experienced a slice of it though, a peek, surrounded by the shadows and silhouettes of whats not visible behind the veil. There was no curtain call- no definite beginning or end for the audience to expect/rely on. 

Giving the audience the freewill to decide the arrangement of the play's scenes forced them into direct contact, not only with the characters, but also with the narrative itself. Bending so many of the expected rules allowed them to experience the show more intimately, unhampered by the safety of conventions.