Let's talk about 'wings'...and 'borders'...

Guest Post: John Conklin

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Someone once said that all the theater needed was passion and a platform. Well, that’s a start. But you also need an audience. And what’s around that platform? Empty space? Or, all the hidden mystery of the backstage space that the audience finds so fascinating? Mysteries hidden in the wings…

In addition to wings, 18th and 19th century sets had borders—pieces that closed in the stage setting above. Of course we still use these terms today. These elements are sometimes called masking or torm(entors) or teasers; interesting how the terminology suggests a hidden world tantalizingly just out of sight of the audience, a view desired and denied. Does the magic and mysterious power of the theater disappear when you are allowed to see how it is created? Or, is it deepened?

Well, let’s use this forum to show and discuss and debate everything. No limits, no borders, no masks. Let’s fly off on wings of curiosity and knowledge, reveal the semi-hidden and participate in the creation of the theatrical event. The production of any piece takes place not in the theater space only but also and more crucially in the minds and hearts and guts of you, the audience.

- John Conklin