Monday, May 5, 2014

Stage the Future--So what is this future?



I recently had the pleasure of being a keynote speaker for Stage the Future, the first conference on science fiction in the theatre. Admittedly, the attendance was sparse, but hey, it's a new conference. But the people there all possessed a level of passion and commitment to this variation of performance and what it can, might, and could do. More importantly, in my mind, practitioners from various artistic companies attended as well. Being able to see what artists were envisioning and thinking about in the art as a practice is a rarity at conferences, and one I definitely hope will continue as Stage the Future moves toward its next conference.

This all said, I noticed one disturbing problem in performing science fiction--one that should concern us all. As presenter after presenter addressed the audience, one thing became clear: We aren't talking to one another enough. Or possibly at all.

When in my keynote I spoke of rupture--that same rupture addressed by Samuel R. Delany between science fiction and Literature--the gap wasn't necessarily one of scholarship, where one field doesn't know what the other is talking about. No, it's a rupture in communication between companies and scholars about what we are doing. Each thought that they were alone, a sole island of scholarship or performance, in an endless sea of realism. We are all of us much larger than we know. And we all need to realize that theatre doesn't parse itself out as sf or non-sf--it's just theatre. It doesn't play the same kind of genre game that literature plays, which actually makes the problem worse and finding one another that much harder.

While this is the case within the U.S., it becomes much more pronounced over The Pond. Conferences like this will help, but how will scholars know where to look? How will theatre companies talk about what they are doing?

There are some resources out there:

 The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (http://iafa.highpoint.edu/ ) has a performing and visual arts division. I've been going for years. They have a journal, too.

HowlRound (http://www.howlround.com/) isn't just about sf/f theatre but has resources and articles.

National New Play Exchange (http://www.nnpn.org/about/programs/new-play-exchange) has been doing quite a bit of sf.

And there's my Forum for Science Fiction in the Theatre on Facebook, an open group for idea exchanges and letting people know about shows. It's a hub for finding more sf theatre and production companies that do it.

I don't have all the answers. I don't have all the resources. But if we want to get better then we need to start talking to one another across countries, across disciplines, and across mediums. Don't be afraid to get messy; it means you did something worthwhile.