For those looking for a theater experience that encourages outside-of-the-box thinking, go inside the box – the Hopkins Black Box Theatre.
The theatre continues its season with “Bauhaus places: pliable spaces, bodily traces,” a production that explores the ideal of the Bauhaus school, a German art and architecture school that operated between the two World Wars.
The play begins Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
The idea for the play came from communication studies instructor Lisa Flanagan’s thesis work on the Bauhaus.
“Their principles were sort of a democratization of the arts and bringing the fine arts and the crafts back together,” Flanagan said. “What I looked at in my thesis was the way they translated their use of formal aesthetics in their staging practices.”
The production is based heavily on movement and color, and the cast studied video footage of previous Bauhaus dance reconstructions to plan the show.
Flanagan said she collaborated with local artists to transform the Hopkins Black Box theater.
“I’ve got artists from on and off campus,” Flanagan said. “We have graffiti artists, metalworkers, a sculpture student … We’ve got printmakers who offered some of their works. I consider this kind of a workshop for everybody. We’re just playing with the stuff and seeing what happens.”
Flanagan said the nature of the Hopkins theatre made it easy to explore Bauhaus principles and tell a different kind of story.
“We sort of have a blank canvas in here every time,” Flanagan said. “This time instead of filling it up with a traditional narrative story … we’re filling it up with color and line and texture and costume and shape and bodies moving around in the space. The story is not so much anything literal, it’s just playing with these things.”
Flanagan said she hopes the audience will come with an open mind in order to gain an appreciation for Bauhaus principles.
“The best thing is not to really come with any expectation for getting a meaning out of it,” Flanagan said. “Come for an experience of the sense of discovery of messing around with things, like what the effect of color is on our attitude.”
Derek Mudd, doctorate student in performance studies student, described the production as “shape and color brought to life on stage.”
He said he hopes his work as a performer can give the audience a better understanding of Bauhaus.
“Even though we’re not recreating exactly what they did, they can get an idea of what the Bauhaus may have been up to,” Mudd said. “It may be able to give the audience just an idea of what Bauhaus theater and dance might have looked like.”
Brianne Waychoff, doctorate student in performance studies, said she has enjoyed preparing for this movement-based production.
“I really feel like people will have my back when I’m out there,” Waychoff said. “We’ve really been working together to put things together. Preparing for the show has been a really good time.”
Waychoff said the play is unlike any production she has been in.
“I’ve been in performances that were physically based or collaborative, but never anything with no words,” Waychoff said. “It’s all movement and all based on aesthetic formalism.”
Waychoff said even if audiences don’t gain an appreciation for Bauhaus principles, they will still enjoy themselves.
“If nothing else, it’s fun and really visually stunning,” Waychoff said.
The play premieres Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and continues through Sunday. For showtimes and more information, visit www.lsu.edu/hbb.
—-Contact Sarah Aycock at [email protected]