In 2010 I was tracking the progress of a experimental Theater production called Project F. This show was about Facebook and how it affects the way people interact today. This rehearsal was held in a TV Channel 9 News studio on Orange Blossom Trail. News footage was being edited in the editing bays as I walked the hallways to find this green screen studio. It was hard to resist the urge to stop and sketch.
Project F was an experimental collaborative experiment between the actors and Director Aradhana Tiwari. At this rehearsal, the actors wrote down autobiographical details which might later be incorporated into the show. Aradhana had been given a camera for Christmas and she documented the rehearsal with photos. TV cameras, cranes and ladders cluttered the space.
After everyone had finished writing, the began a viewpoints session. Viewpoints is a trust building exercise that has the actors walk in a grid pattern on the stage. Actors become aware of each others movements and develop a 6th sense about who is near them on the stage. Aradhana gives the actors suggestions which are incorporated into their every move. Sometime the moves were slow and languorous and at other times fast and frenetic.
Project F had much promise, but it never made it to a final stages production. I feel lucky to have seen the early stages in its development. A software interface has changed the way people interact and exchange ideas. It had made it easy to reconnect with old friends and it had caused friction and rifts in other relationships. We will never be the same.