Stage

From my prior experiences with Carapace and my reading on and experience with other reality storytelling events, I expected Carapace to do little “staging.” Randy confirmed “we try to do very little creating” of the stage. They had considered using a raised stage

but we decided not to do that

because we wanted to tellers to be on the level with

their audience

so called.

The non-stage area, the space for the audience is “just a bunch of tables pushed together.” Randy and Joyce were creating a certain feel. “We wanted it to look as natural and spontaneous as possible.” He said this was partly to “encourage people to get up and tell stories.” They would feel more at east in a “natural” setting.

This view seemed to be confirmed when Carapace moved to Venkman’s during the renovation of Manuel’s Tavern. Although Randy was quick to say that Venkman’s was “very, very kind to us” and he thought they were “wonderful,” he also added that “a lot of our people didn’t like it very much at all.” He attributes this largely to the fact that the tellers were “on an elevated stage, under lights.” Randy felt that this “raises the bar.” Storytellers felt pressure to be more entertaining when “in fact I’m just trying to tell about a thing that happened and what it meant to me.”

Randy equates being on a raised stage with stage lights with being “on a pedestal.” He said:

I wanna be on a pedestal

be looked at.

I don't wanna be just down here

talking to you in a bar.

In my theoretical application of the McLuhans’ Laws of Media, I would suggest that the stage enhances your visibility and puts the performer on a pedestal.

Randy described a show he put together which was performed in the black box at Seven Stages.

So we had that intimacy to it.

And

there was a stage

but it was

one of those stages that's down here

and the bleachers are up here.

So those are more comfortable

because then you're looking down at the teller

instead of looking up

in a worshipful way.

He found the low stage to be more intimate. He connected a raised stage with having to look up “worshipfully” but a low stage is more “comfortable.” How does a low stage fit into the laws of media? The performer is still set apart, but not raised up. Like an animal or a gladiator in a pit?