How many plays have you attended where you find yourself "shuffling in
your seat" wondering when on earth it's going to end?
Or left feeling so "wiped-out" by the end, that you can hardly keep awake
on the trip home?
In a world full of fast information, immediate gratification, and super-busy
lives, few of us have the time or inclination to watch a two-and-a-half hour play without getting
restless.
A survey conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts found
that there was a notable decline in theater, cinema, museum, and concert attendance, from 2002 to 2008.
The reasons "why" seem obvious enough: we have so much in-home technology available, the internet, and a decrease in our available spare time. We don't even have to leave the house
to shop anymore - we just order online and wait for it to be delivered to our door - food, clothes,
household goods, you name it.
All in all, it's becoming harder and harder to convince someone to "go out".
To entice someone out of the house, you have to offer an experience that they can't get at
home. Something that is so good, they don't mind making the "extra effort".
Live theater - large or small - remains a unique experience that, to date, nothing has been able to match. The problem is, for many of the masses, it's tainted by a very damaging association:
Boredom.
Expectation of what "entertainment" is, has changed - whether we like it or not.
It's fast, loud, highly visual and low-effort.
Unfortunately, theater doesn't traditionally sit in this camp. By comparison, it's slow-paced, and requires the audience to focus on dialogue and plot movement.
Many of today's audiences are, simply put, out of practice!
For theaters and playwrights, we have to adapt to a faster-moving culture with shorter attention spans,
if we want to entice a new theater-going public to our productions.
We also have to appreciate that many people have a very demanding job that they have to go to the
following morning, or a baby-sitter being paid by the hour.
No theater has the budget to be able to match the grand experience of film or online games, but what we can do is make sure that the theater experience is sharp,
snappy, and immediately gratifying.
This is where the one-act play comes in.
Ordinarily, a theater might run a one-act season every 2-5 years as a bit of novelty or to introduce new writing or directing talent.
With the change in audience expectations, one-act plays now make ideal theater projects to run on a more regular basis.
One-act stories are quick to grasp, and just long enough to retain today's audience interest.
And if
the play doesn't "grab" an audience member - which happens - it's all over pretty quickly and the next play is presented!
An added bonus is that if you delight a crowd with a one-act play season, it's a fantastic way to
introduce them to full-length theater.
To read a one-act play right now, click here.
To read more articles, click here.
