Extended Encounter: The Cyclic Interchange Between Audience and Performer

Emerging from the linear dialogue between audience and performer is the liminal time and space where this proposal sits. Augusto Boal believed theatre should be for everyone. In this vein, the proposal embodies Forum Theatre, created by Boal (2013) as a way for the spectator to take action. The interconnectedness of audience and performer creates a space for community cohesion.

This live project coupled with social enterprise Grow Plymouth is an opportunity to generate social and community cohesion within the city. Grow Plymouth welcomes collaboration at the centre of the community, inspired by transitional spaces where individuals and collectives can be themselves. This ambition is embodied within the extended encounter proposal, encouraging inhabitants to create the future they want to see through performance. As an embodiment of Forum Theatre, the proposal is a catalyst for positive change in the community.

This extended encounter is vital to a new dialogue where liminal space becomes inhabited by the ritual. Physical surfaces become activated and reactivated through inhabitation and movement. This rethinking of theatrical dialogue between audience and performer is a chance for traditional barriers to disappear, activating the paratexts of space, typically outside of action. The emphasis on this space outside of action is essential in validating the action itself (Lucas, 2020, p.162), generating a greater presence of the ritual and body. The everyday becomes a performance, where spectactors inhabit the space, and audience and performer are indistinguishable, enhancing Goffman’s suggestion that everyday life is theatre (Gharavi, 2011, p.31). Grow Plymouth's desire for non-static spaces - "transitional space" - enhances the relationships that can occur with the nature of this discussion in the realm of the physical.