Film vs Play: How The Last Show On Earth Blends Film and Live Acting

11 minutes ago
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(TLSOE writer Joey Taylor directs actor Marcy Wiegert)

In less than a month, ERA will perform The Last Show On Earth at the Kranzberg Arts Center for the first time, but certainly not the last. Although for the audience it may well be. For it is nothing but a spectacular, comical journey through human extinction and cosmic explosion; a complex interpretation of the end of everything. Humans, the Earth, and the Universe. However, this stellar blast will only occur at the end of the play, as The Last Show On Earth depicts mostly the before, every event and stage leading up to it: the end of the human race, the survival of human memory through advertisements, scrolling content, and AI robots, and existential questions, and confessions. The play is a positively colorful illustration of the end of the world and the universe. So, it’s not a surprise that the creative process behind the scenes is just as lively and playful.

Like most stage plays, the production process of The Last Show On Earth is quite similar; however, the main difference is the integration of film. For someone like myself with a film background, combining film and stage acting is completely foreign to me but incredibly exciting. Two of my preferred forms of art, which I have always kept separate or, in better words, experienced in separate environments, are now being expressed in respect to each other. How brilliant! During the live performances of The Last Show On Earth, an assortment of clips and scrolling content will be projected behind the actors. These clips are essentially archival video footage of advertisements and scrolling content, and are meant to represent the digital memory of human existence.

The footage was written and produced independently of the play itself; unlike typical film sets, these random clips of digital media were unplanned and composed in the moment. While at first, I thought this approach to be risky and messy, since film productions tend to be methodically premeditated, I grew to enjoy the encouragement of spontaneous creativity. On average, film sets, creativity is limited to the director, and the director only, for the most part, while everyone else has designated roles that support and cater to the director’s vision. However, in this production, roles tend to overlap and so do ideas. Each of us may provide our thoughts and opinions to inspire the director/writer, and may even assist with the writing. Compared to film, this approach feels more collaborative and whimsical.

But once again, composing the script as we rehearse is another foreign concept to me. In film, nothing begins until the script is finished; nothing is planned before the script is finished. This show’s pre-production process feels more flexible and fun, and enables creative, impromptu discoveries to occur naturally. It encourages us to think off the cuff and devise a scene or skit in the moment, without preparation. This way, everyone participates in the collective creation of the story, and it feels like each of us is truly influencing the story. For ERA, the crew doesn’t just stand behind a director or writer; we stand alongside them on equal grounds. Does it sometimes make pre-production messy? Yes, but art is supposed to be messy. Sometimes exciting things can occur in chaos, and ERA provides just enough chaos for ideas to emerge and flourish. Although the processes of film and play productions differ immensely, The Last Show On Earth blends these processes in a way that feels avant-garde and fun, and with no limitations.