What Is The Nine? Pt. 2 -- It's Temporary!

Let's start this post with a fun little tidbit: for the entire run of subUrbia, Part One of our shindig, only 360 people will be able to see the show. And this is assuming that everyone who sees the show only does so once. (For the record, I fully plan on staking out an honest to god seat for myself both opening and closing night, so we've already blown that little hypothetical all to hell.) The show has a forty seat max. capacity for a nine show run. And that's that. I don't know if an extension is in the realm of possibility or not and that really doesn't matter because that ain't happening. There will be no extensions. There will be no standing room. There will be no pulling in extra chairs (as a matter of fact, the space will have forty-four seats, but four of those will remain empty, for reasons to be divulged at a later date). And this is an important point to make for everyone now, with plenty of warning, because once one of these bad boys sells out, it's sold out. I don't care if Chris Jones or even Terry Teachout is on the waiting list. Or my mother. Or someone offering to bankroll the rest of the project if only, if only I'll pull in one extra chair for them. (So please take note of this Chris, Terry, mom, and artistic guardian angels -- make reservations now.) Granted, the show is free, and my experience is that free = plenty of no-shows, so the waiting list probably won't be the terrible purgatory I'm making it out to be here, but the point remains. 360 people. And done. Forever.

Granted, the 360 people won't be a constant in The Nine. Each part will only run for nine performances with a very strict seating capacity, but that capacity will change. Forty to sixty seats is probably a good estimation of the average, but for some of the shows (i.e. Caesar Antichrist), I'd love to get a much bigger crowd. On the flip side, a show like BlueGrass is going to be much more intimate -- probably around 20 seats, meaning a total run capacity of 180 people. 180 people! Most actors I know, myself included, have performed to more than that in one show, much less an entire run!

Why? I want to break out talk about community, but that's talk that's always felt false to me. Though maybe there's something to it here. I also want to talk theatre vs. film, a conversation which has also felt false. So let's try to combine them and make something make sense.

There's always plenty of talk about how theatre should stop trying so hard to be like film. About how film will always do what it can do better, so we should embrace what film can't accomplish. I don't always necessarily agree, but that's neither here nor there, because one of areas of that argument I agree with most is the temporality, the ethereality of theatre. The fact that when you are sitting at a play you can be absolutely certain that there aren't others watching this production at the same time in theaters around the nation is pretty damn cool. And on an even smaller level, the fact that you are within spitting distance of every last person that will see this specific performance with its specific intricacies is really damn cool. Theatre is a limited engagement affair, by necessity yes, but why not also by choice? Why not embrace this idea of the once in a lifetime chance with the desire for the 'real thing'? A combination of the reason next year's Pavement reunion show in Central Park sold out in two minutes with the reason people travel to the Louvre instead of trading postcards of the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

Actually, you know what? Let's do one better and point to an artist who has been doing this exact thing for decades: Christo. I've never seen a Christo installation; I was too young to know about most of them and wasn't able to make it to NYC until about two months after The Gates came down. I won't miss another; seeing the next one is in my top five life goals. I only hope both Christo and I are around long enough to make that happen. (Especially considering the recent loss of Jeanne-Claude. Rest in peace, dear lady.) There's something about having to travel far and wide at a very specific time to witness this marvel of human creativity and ingenuity because, dammit, this is the ONLY place and the ONLY time you will ever be able to witness it. And if you miss it, you will never be able to know what it felt like to bask in this creation. Maybe it's because I've always been a fan of the hard to find corners of the world, of the rare and limited experiences that we can only have if we choose to find them, but I love Christo's work, and I wish more theatre would try to find a way to embrace that aspect that is so naturally built into it.

It's also where the community aspect comes into play. It's a tricky word that community, because it's so rarely defined. We as humans want to speak to/with and feel a part of a community, but we also so often want our communities to be universal or at least as all-inclusive as possible. And yes, sometimes that's good. And sometimes, sometimes communities benefit from being small. From the fact that for the millions and billions of people who did not see The Gates, there are thousands who did. That for the millions and billions of people who do not see subUrbia, 360 can. And those 360 will have an experience that they can share that the other millions and billions can not (a community that I'm already brainstorming on further ways to promote through the run). And that, too, my friends, is something special. Something special that is an essential part of theatre and not of film, or of television, or of so many other forms. Frankly, I think we need to flaunt that from time to time.

And while I'm here, let's end this post with a different fun tidbit, this one about communities within communities: Let's just say that the max capacity for BlueGrass does end up being exactly 20 people, for a 180 person run capacity. While that won't be happening until Part Five, keep in mind that 360 people may be able to see subUrbia, but only 180 will be able to see The Nine as a whole project. Each show will be able to stand alone, so there's no worries there. But in the best of all possible worlds, only 180 people will take the full journey with us. You want to be one of them.

Keep that in mind when you make your reservations... early.

Bries.