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Moment Work: Tectonic Theater Project's Process of Devising Theater by Moisés Kaufman and Barbara Pitts McAdams et al.

2019; Volume: 38; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ths.2019.0026

2166-9953

R. Craig Sautter,

Art, Technology, and Culture

Reviewed by: Moment Work: Tectonic Theater Project's Process of Devising Theaterby Moisés Kaufman and Barbara Pitts McAdams et al. Richard Sautter Moment Work: Tectonic Theater Project's Process of Devising Theater. By Moisés Kaufman and Barbara Pitts McAdams et al.. New York: Vintage, 2018. pp. x + 307. $18.00 cloth. A participant says, "I begin." Something occurs. The participant says, "I end." Whatever happens in between the two phrases makes up the basis of Tectonic Theater Project's work: the Moment. Tectonic has, for more than twenty-five years, created fascinating and groundbreaking works, telling the stories of people as disparate as Beethoven ( 33 Variations), Oscar Wilde ( Gross Indecency), and the residents of Laramie, Wyoming ( The Laramie Project). In Moment Work, they tell their own story. A combination of studio journal, history, teaching manual, and reflection, the book describes their devising and rehearsal processes and shines light on the principles underlying them. It is to their great credit that, by and large, Moment Workproves as eye-opening as the best of Tectonic's productions. "Moment Work" is the term given to their approach, an outgrowth of the ideas and experiments that permeated Tectonic's founding and early work in the 1990s. The phrase does not merely refer to chronology. Rather, it involves exploring all the component elements of every unit of stage time. These vary from tangible elements like architecture, voice, and costume to more interpretive ones like tension, virtuosity, and ritual. These elements are explored through studio work singly and then combined in various ways. The goal is not just a new narrative but the discovery of new ways of creating and sharing narrative. "We do exercises about subject matter, and in tandem, we do exercises about form. The dialogue between the two is what generates the work" (22). Still, they emphasize that, although devising is often part of their work, the methods described in this book can be used with preexisting texts, as well. The book is composed of three sections. The first identifies the predecessors from whom the company drew inspiration, describes the basic history of the group, and explains the fundamentals behind their approach to creating theatre. The second section goes in depth to illustrate the methodologies of Moment Work, and the third consists of essays by company members that shine light on [End Page 244]particular topics related to their processes. (Although Kaufman and McAdams are identified as the principal authors, Tectonic members Leigh Fondakowski, Greg Pierotti, Andy Paris, Kelli Simpkins, Jimmy Maize, and Scott Barrow made contributions to the text, including the essays, and are listed as coauthors.) Although it does an excellent job of laying the groundwork, the first section is the book's weakest. Short as it is, it gets rather repetitive, as the authors find numerous ways to emphasize that their theatre exists at the intersection of the literary and the performative. Perhaps the greatest flaw of the first section is a sin of omission. They do not define the term "Moment" here or in the introduction. Indeed, it does not get fully explained until fifteen pages into part 2. While its essence is strongly hinted at before that, and the term, by necessity, is an open-ended one, it would help the reader to establish a stronger understanding of the concept if the authors took the trouble to explain it at an earlier point, especially since they use the term liberally in the pages preceding its definition. Part 2: The Moment Work Process is the heart of the book, constituting almost 70 percent of the text. The I begin/I endprocedure is deceptively simple. This section examines the many purposes that Moment creation can serve and the many sorts of achievements that can result. Tectonic Theater Project's model is a three-stage progression. Level 1, called Making Moments, is where company members define the constituent elements of the event and explore them in increasing complexity. Level 2 finds the members creating short narratives, and level 3 deals with creating a full-length work. This portion of the book is superbly organized. Exercises that constitute the various stages of the process are explained and...