Photo by the author.

What Is Theater?

There are few things I love more than sitting in a dark room and being immersed in a live form of storytelling that leaves me on the edge of my seat.

Oscar Wilde regarded theater as “the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be another human being.” When I think of the traditional nature of theater, I think of the relationship between audience and performer. Is that all it takes for a piece of art to be regarded as “theater”? Can any sort of in-person performance with an observer be considered theater? With the continual rise of technology and the lingering influence of COVID-19 isolations, entertainment and the arts continue to evolve with the ever-changing times.

For over seven decades, Williamstown Theatre Festival has been a renowned, celebratory place where traditional theatrical experiences premiere and prevail. Located in the Berkshires, the Festival has showcased a combination of new work and bold revivals. The new plays and musicals that premiere at the Festival have a track record of transferring to a Broadway theater, proving it to be a reputable source for high-quality content and home to burgeoning artistic talent. The Festival’s attendees generally consist of donors, high-end artists, and locals of the Berkshires.

The weekend of August 2nd, I had the privilege of attending Williamstown Theatre Festival’s WTF Is Next, a potential new program in its traditional summer season. As an audience member, I experienced traditional theatrical elements and witnessed innovative ideas that challenged the boundaries of a conventional theater experience.

Over the course of a weekend, I inhaled one performance after another. While some lingered with their innovation and creativity like a refreshing quick treat, others felt like strong solo pieces of art that exemplified the wide range of mediums the festival aims to showcase.

The former included the colorful and playful language of Sarah Kay’s spoken word poetry that welcomed us into the Festival as the first performance of the weekend. In a stripped down, minimalist theatrical experience, her words served as the main characters. It could even be seen in Williamstown Theatre Festival’s annual Cabaret, which features a diverse cast of Broadway performers singing Broadway classics; this time, a fun mashup of Wheatus’s 2000’s hit “Teenage Dirtbag” and Dear Evan Hansen’s breakthrough ballad “Waving through a Window” stole the show.

The show that left the biggest impact on me due to the unconventional energy and themes was an experimental theater piece titled Open Mic Night. In a dark black box theater with minimal design elements, an artist, Julia Mounsey, tells us about her dynamic with her former coworker at the DIY Brooklyn-based events space. Peter Weiss, the coworker at hand, is introduced abruptly and aggressively, using a microphone to make jarring breathing noises. This transitions into asking audience members on-the-spot questions, to then asking even more specific questions about everyone's financial situation, creating a high level of discomfort in the room. These questions felt particularly pointed towards the average affluent Williamstown Theatre Festival attendee, challenging the conventional theatrical experience that they are accustomed to. The progression of the show, though palpably tense, proved deeply effective, pushing the boundaries of performance for the audience.

Open Mic Night succeeded in generating an extreme reaction from the Williamstown audience, as many people walked out of the show either in the beginning of the hour-long experience or halfway through. As an avid theatergoer, this show demonstrated to me a theatrical social experiment. It shows the Festival’s focus on creating unconventional and surprising artistic experiences that push the boundaries of performance. Exposing those conditioned to a specific style of theater to a wider net of art generated by younger voices feels like the mission of Williamstown’s WTF Is Next programming. 

The Festival's effort to introduce a new program feels like an aim to not only expose Williamstown attendees to a vast array of artistic experiences, but also to diversify its audience to include a younger viewership. I hope for future iterations of the Festival to include more opportunities for students as well as Gen Z and Millennial theatergoers to attend, perhaps by providing transportation from the city to the Berkshires or offering discount tickets to young artists who may one day call Williamstown a home for their own work. With such a wide array of styles and mediums showcased at WTF Is Next, there is room for future iterations to have a more specific program for the theater they showcase.

Williamstown’s efforts to broaden its content and welcome unconventional forms of performance feels like the Festival is elevating artists of the future generation. I look forward to experiencing the Festival's rebirth with the inclusion of new voices in the years to come.