Best Entertaining Surreality
Elemental Theatre Collective
In acting classes and creative writing courses, sometimes the most imagination-freeing opportunities are within the restrictions of ingenious exercises. Similarly, the annual package of short plays by the ELEMENTAL THEATRE COLLECTIVE is a treat to look forward to. In its most recent version, Deca*go*go, playwrights Dave Rabinow and Alexander Platt utilized a variation on the surrealist game of the exquisite corpse. Picking five story elements out of a hat, they used at least one in each of the 10 mini-plays, written in sequence, using the final image of each as the first of the next play, the entire sequence ending with the opening image. A mask, disease, mice, torture, and a dirty joke. This year under director Peter Sampieri, the sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet journey traveled from forest to hospital to ancient Greece. | elementaltheatre.org
