Jordyn Holka
Staff Writer
In an age where many members of the cultural elite see social media as a vexing taboo, the Department of Theatre and Dance’s latest production has received a slew of positive electronic reviews, each of which was compiled in a mere 140 characters or less.
The department’s highly successful presentation of Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s “The School for Scandal” concluded its five-day run this past Sunday. The play followed the circulation of rumors and gossip among the elite of London, exposing the consequences and ultimate triviality of scandalous activity in such a society.
Aiming to bring the 18th Century play to relevancy in the 21st Century, Twitter was intricately incorporated into the development of the production. This allowed actors and audience members alike to interact and offer their thoughts on the scandalous happenings unfolding onstage in anticipation of, throughout and in retrospect of each performance.
When analyzing the subject matter of the play during the conception process, “The School for Scandal” production crew saw Twitter as an almost natural modern-day counterpart to the show’s historic satirical content.
“[Twitter] is a device, a tool,” said Dr. James Ivey, the play’s director. “Sheridan was creating a metaphor for the politics of his day, relating to his audiences how reputations are ruined by spreading misinformation. And, so, that lends itself to this technology that we have today.”
Twitter has essentially become the social media site of choice for many college-age individuals, so weaving it into the fabric of “The School for Scandal” was not a difficult task.
“Once we introduced the idea of employing this technology, all the students were already familiar with it, and they immediately began to see how it could become a part of their character development,” said Ivey. “And, as a result, it brought these performers into a unified world.”
Each character had his or her own Twitter account through which the characters relayed their thoughts and photos to the public. Moreover, the hashtag #FREDScandal developed over the course of rehearsals and performances, allowing the characters, as well as audience members, to interact with each other.
Jake Brinkman, a senior BFA theatrical production and design major with a concentration in lighting design, served as the social media manager for the production.
“Dr. Ivey and I both agreed that this would not only be a good reason to promote our show, but help the actors get to know their characters,” said Brinkman on the use of Twitter in the show. “What would their characters tweet if they saw what was going on?”
“When I was on the sides of the stage watching the action, but not participating in it, was always a great time to tweet and get involved with the audience and other characters,” said Kiernan Matts, the sophomore musical theatre major who played the character of Trip in the production.
“[Trip] has to vent his frustrations out, and the Internet, places like Twitter … it’s a great place to do that,” said Matts.
The show ran from Wednesday to Sunday, and at each performance the last two rows of the
theater were designated as “tweet seats” where audience members were free to defy usual theatre etiquette and use their phones, as explained in the show’s prologue. This prologue, devised by junior journalism and theatre double-major Maggie Gilroy, was written specifically for Fredonia’s production to make the audience aware of the Twitter presence in the show. Gilroy served as dramaturg for the production, compiling historical and contextual information and references to bring an air of realism to the production as a whole.
In addition to encouraging audience members to join in on the Twitter conversation, Brinkman and Gilroy set up a monitor in the lobby that used Twubs, an application designed to follow any given hashtag on Twitter, to display a live feed of tweets with the hashtag #FREDscandal throughout each performance.
“It was cool to see it all together and have people come up to myself and Maggie, thanking us for putting it together and helping set up accounts and explain twitter to them,” said Brinkman.
Friday night’s performance was officially Twitter Night, when all audience members were encouraged to tweet throughout the performance. During this show alone, about 400 tweets were posted between the actors and audience members. During this performance, as well as the Tuesday evening dress rehearsal, the tweeting was so successful that #FREDScandal became a trending hashtag in Fredonia.
Ivey was extremely pleased with Friday’s special event, as he said all audience members took advantage of it respectfully, dimming their phone screens and turning off all electronic sounds.
Although he doesn’t necessarily see himself utilizing Twitter in future productions, Ivey is intrigued by the concept of Twitter being incorporated into the arts and even everyday life.
“We’re becoming more respectful and skilled at being able to use the device in such a way that it is not taking away from the experience — it’s enhancing it,” said Ivey. “When we look at the universe up there, it exists on the play level, but it also has another level, where this meta-theatrical universe is off to the sides as the actors are commenting on what they are observing.”
Brinkman also weighed in on the topic of the future of Twitter in the theatre.
“All in all, I am extremely happy with all the results that we had, and I cannot wait to have an experience again to incorporate social media into theatre,” he said.
As seen in the production, Twitter is an extremely powerful tool, and it is up to the individual or organization to harness that power and use it to its full potential.
“I’m still processing some of what’s happened here and trying to understand for myself what it is that we’ve done,” Ivey said. “I think there’s a certain aesthetic experience, as well as a social experience, that has brought these worlds together.”