Interviewing the Audience
Opening Night: February 10, 2011
Closing: February 27, 2011
Theater: 37 Arts Theatre
Playwright and filmmaker Zach Helm ("Good Canary", screenwriter/director "Stranger than Fiction" and "Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium") brings a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience to The Vineyard. Based on a method originated by pioneering author, actor, and storyteller Spalding Gray, Zach invites individual members of each evening’s audience to be interviewed by him on stage. The result is an improvised, intimate, and immensely compelling evening that expands our perception of theatre and narrative. By turns lighthearted and moving, strange and surprising, Interviewing the Audience is a not-to-be-missed special event.
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February 10, 2011
Time to face it. You are probably not going to be making an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The waning days of that celebrated syndicated chatfest are upon us, and if you have not yet received the call, it is unlikely that you will be joining Ms. Winfrey on the plush couches under the comforting lighting to discuss your memoir of a miserable childhood, your new aromatherapy line or your discovery that sex just gets better in middle age.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 11, 2011
Shows aimed at getting the audience in on the act are enjoying a mini-moment. Rebecca Northan’s recently wrapped "Blind Date" found her improvising with an unsuspecting guy each night. Now, in "Interviewing the Audience," Zach Helm spends an hour on stage at the Vineyard Theatre doing exactly what the title describes.
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February 11, 2011
Interviewing the Audience is a curious little show. Trim, unhurried and unthreateningly attired in shades of gray—with a hint of color poking out in his socks—Zach Helm begins by explaining that the piece is inspired by a stunt Spalding Gray used to pull: Instead of talking about himself as usual, the late monologuist invited audience members to converse with him onstage, guided by a set of standard questions. Best known as the writer-director of the heavily whimsical children’s film Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Helm goes a step beyond Gray by preparing only one query in advance—the opening one—and playing it by ear from there.
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February 11, 2011
In the early ’80s, the late mono loguist Spalding Gray created a show called "Interviewing the Audience" in which he did just that. He brought random theatergoers onstage and got them to open up. Writer-director Zach Helm ("Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium") saw the piece, and it made such an impression that he’s revived it, with himself as the host.
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February 10, 2011
This is a review of Tuesday’s performance of "Interviewing the Audience," a thought-provoking show that will be different every time it is staged — and you might very well be in it. Yes, you, if you’re an audience member of this fascinating, spontaneously created production.
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