By David Gordon
Barack Obama and John McCain weren’t the only ones debating at the University this past week. Tuesday night marked the one-night only performance of Hofstra’s Neo-Futurism workshop, advised by Drama Department adjunct professor Chris Dippel, a founding member of the New York City branch of the Neo-Futurists (the sister company of the Chicago group, founded in 1988 by Greg Allen).
Neo-Futurism is a non-illusionary type of theater that, according to their website, doesn’t buy into the trend of “suspension of disbelieve.” The people on stage are not characters in their own world; they are who they say they are and they know they’re performing for a live audience.
According to Drama Department Chairperson Jean Dobie Giebel, this production is a way of getting the Drama Department involved with Educate ’08. Director/advisor Dippel had been running a workshop in Neo-Futurism over the past few January intersessions. “It’s workshops on how to write short plays that have no pretense or illusion; you are who you are, you are where you are, and you’re doing what you’re doing.”
“Even though we may be playing other characters, we’re ourselves playing them,” says sophomore Rich Traub. “The audience knows that.”
Kyle Cheng, who has taken Dippel’s class previously and is participating in the debate, says that “Neo-Futurism is a completely unorthodox and liberating style of theater.” He hopes that after seeing the show, audiences will come away with a much better awareness of what’s going on with the political race. “No matter how small your contributions are, they’re noticed,” he says.
The cast of the performance was made up of Drama Department students; Cheng, Louis Aquiler, Chris D’Amato, Keith Pinault, and Abigail Strange on the affirmative side; Traub, Jeremy Benson, Dina Massery, Richie Pepio, and Alexis Rhiannon on the negative.
The topic of their performance: a debate regarding whether or not the American people “would be better served if political campaigns focused more on real issues and less on personal theatrics.” Each team gets an opening statement, a rebuttal, a cross-examination of the other side, and a closing statement. The winners are determined by an audience vote. The catch is that they’re not debating with speeches, they’re debating with short plays.
Benson, on the negative side, believes that the idea of theatricality in politics is important, especially in this day and age. “Theatricality is not a bad thing,” he says. “You can look at ‘Rock the Vote’ [as an example of theatricality]…it builds something within young people which makes them get involved. It’s important in today’s system.”
The Neo-Futurists original production, “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” is still running in both Chicago and New York City. For more information, check out www.nyneofuturists.org or www.neofuturists.org.