INTERVIEW: New show from Broken Box Mime Theater takes shape
Photo: The Broken Box Mime Theater has returned with Take Shape. Photo courtesy of Bjorn Bolinder / Provided by Emily Owens PR with permission.
The Broken Box Mime Theater is back with a new show at A.R.T./New York. The piece is called Take Shape and features 10 nonverbal segments, according to press notes. For example, there’s one segment that is centered on a YouTube cooking show, while another segment focuses on an astronaut needing a break from their loneliness.
Performances of the 80-minute piece run through May 1. Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Broken Box’s artistic director, Becky Baumwoll. The company has been going strong for more than a decade, bringing the art of French pantomime to American audiences. They use movement to transcend language, attempting to utilize the power of simplicity for each performance. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can audiences expect from Take Shape?
Fantastic storytelling! If you haven’t seen mime before, you can expect to have your idea of this artform turned upside down, expanded and delightfully redefined. It’s a fantastic workout for the imagination, but also super accessible — we use no words throughout the show, and our 10-person cast uses only their bodies to tell all of the stories. For new faces and physical theater enthusiasts alike, Take Shape will be a rich display of ambitious ideas, ensemble theater-making and social commentary. You’ll hear a soundtrack live-mixed by musician Jack Mcguire and see projections by Cinthia Chen and lights by Yang Yu — these brilliant designers help us to set the scene for what is otherwise an entirely set-less, prop-less evening of BKBX Mime at our finest.
Do the stories connect in some way?
Take Shape is all about what emerges over time. We visit an office that is struggling to adapt to the effects of climate change; we watch a first-time mother track a new path around her baby’s crib; we join a motley crew of cons as their plan for a high-stakes heist comes into focus. All together there are about 10 pieces, each woven together into a short two-act evening that has a little taste of everything. Some audience members like the more abstract, poetic pieces, some enjoy the more narrative, goofy ones — there’s something for everyone.
How is mime and nonverbal theater accessible to all theater patrons?
Great question! We — humans! — speak body language every day. We communicate with facial expressions, read each other’s postures and add gestures to enrich our conversations. This is a big part of our work: harnessing our understanding of body language to tell stories in a medium that feels at once entirely novel and also deeply familiar. And then, without spoken language, our stories have no language barrier. At our best, our stories maintain a sense of universality without becoming unspecific. They actually become super personal! With the audience as our “final playwright,” each person gets to fill in the blank spaces with their own imaginations. It’s a fantastic medium for welcoming people of all language backgrounds, all physical (dis)abilities and all levels of (un)familiarity with theater.
How long has the piece been in development?
Some of the stuff you’ll see in Take Shape grew from seeds that were planted years ago in conversation — this is the joy of working with an ensemble of company members year after year! Though this is the mainstage debut for four performers, a few of us have been with Broken Box since we were founded in 2011. More specifically though, we began working on “our next mainstage show” in mid-2019 after our premiere of SKIN. The pandemic paused our plans, but we kept the home fires burning until we could be in person again. In October, we went on a residency retreat to the Fresh Air Fund’s Sharpe Reservation and then began exploratory rehearsals this past January. We wrote and developed all the pieces over the last month.
When the entire cast is devising the show, how are decisions made?
Perfectly, with no conflict and faster than expected. Just kidding. Truly, it’s a powerful thing when a group of artists can work together and seek a sum that is greater than its parts. There are conversations, discussions, disagreements and more discussions. There is a lot of discovery, experimentation, reflection and positive feedback.
Each piece has its own “lead writer” and “lead director” (sometimes more than one on either of these teams), and they are in charge of the rehearsal room when it’s time to rehearse their story. All the company members give notes throughout, and I as artistic director am responsible for the holistic vision of the show and its alignment with the greater picture of BKBX’s body of work at this moment in time. I tend to lead and boundary our discussions to stay on track, but of course this is a skill-in-progress. We are all constantly working at getting better as communicators, treating each other with kindness and taking advantage of the wealth of a dozen brilliant minds in the room while also not getting stuck in some happy medium or common denominator. I am constantly in awe of the people I get to work with, both as company members and as collaborators, designers, and “outside eyes” to the process.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Take Shape from the Broken Box Mime Theater plays through May 1 at A.R.T./New York. Click here for more information and tickets.
