{"id":540,"date":"2019-08-13T01:50:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T01:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imaginedtheatres.com\/?post_type=theatre&#038;p=540"},"modified":"2019-08-13T08:32:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T08:32:37","slug":"from-here-to-there","status":"publish","type":"theatre","link":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/from-here-to-there\/","title":{"rendered":"From Here to There"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ANTE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The audience begins in a dark room. The walls, the floor, the ceiling are damp and soft, and the air hangs heavy with moisture. Somewhere far away, a low, dull thump sounds regularly. Does the audience remember how they arrived here? They can\u2019t say. It\u2019s too hot to remember. Hypnotic pulsing. Some of the spectators want to sit down, but the ground is just soft enough and just sticky enough to dissuade even the bravest so they remain standing, suspended in time.<\/p>\n<p>At once, a revelation, a spotlight, a voice, a knife. \u201cCut your way out. Or stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A murmur among the group.<\/p>\n<p>Glances at glow-in-the-dark digital watches, sudden rememberings of commitments to lives outside.<\/p>\n<p>A hand on the knife.<\/p>\n<p>A gash in the wall.<\/p>\n<p>Screaming.<\/p>\n<p>Light. Blood.<\/p>\n<p>Blood.<\/p>\n<p>Blood.<\/p>\n<p>No curtain. Just pain.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>POST<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A large sumptuous theatre. The velvet seats are filled with human skeletons. Each one has been carefully cleaned, no gore or crusty skin mar the perfect white bone. In the half-light, they almost glow. They have been preserved lovingly, the care evident in the meticulous wire joints, the attentive positions of the bones, the lack of dust.<\/p>\n<p>Perfectly obliging, the skeletons sit in neat audience rows, no spaces empty, and grin charmingly at the stage. A ticket has been placed beneath the right hand of each patient spectator. At exactly 7:25pm, the lights gently lower then brighten to indicate that the audience better find their seats quickly. At 7:30pm, on the dot and without fail, the curtain rises.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight, the performer is a young musician cradling a guitar. \u201cHow y\u2019all doing tonight?\u201d Warm silence. \u201cThis first song is about dirt. Well, here we go\u2026\u201d Gentle acoustic chords. Soulful singing. The sound of an air conditioner somewhere. And after the performance is done, the curtain falls. There is no intermission. Or maybe this is the intermission, the space between shows. The audience doesn\u2019t mind much. This is exactly where they want to be.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MID<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Actors do their best to blend in to the faceless glass city. They get desk jobs, they settle down, they raise families. They buy a house. They take out a mortgage. They die. It is all very American and very middle class. None of it is real. All of it is art.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen did the performance begin? When did it end? Where can I buy tickets?\u201d the audience asks. The box office representative is not sure. She is new.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actors do their best to blend in to the faceless glass city. They get desk jobs, they settle down, they raise families. None of it is real. ","protected":false},"menu_order":0,"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/theatres\/540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/theatres"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/theatre"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}