Presence in Contemporary Theater Practice

Power, Cormac
Presence in Play: A Critique of Theories of Presence in the Theatre
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1988

I am a visual learner and am part of an ever increasing number of people heavily influenced by concepts and products transmitted purely through virtual means. As a stage director, I have been in situations with people outside of the industry where I have been forced to justify my profession. They ask, “When are you going to graduate to film?” Hmmm . . . graduate? I found the topics discussed in Presence in Play: A Critique of Theories of Presence in the Theatre by Cormac Power—for instance topics like the actor/character duality and different philosophical theories about fiction and “liveness”—to be a fresh reminder of why I work with the live medium: the embodied presence. I especially find Power’s ideas interesting because I have recently started integrating technology into my theatrical work, considering the role of the virtual in an embodied art form. This book provided a vehicle to help me organize and articulate my own thoughts about my work as an artist-educator, stage director (in particular), and theater professional (in general).

Power has opened a discussion on an esoteric topic in a way that is graceful and practical. What is the role of presence in the live transmission of character, or of information and ideas, for that matter? How much do I want to reveal? How much should the audience (whether a theatrical audience or a group of students in a classroom) create for themselves? What is the relationship between what is happening on the stage, or in front of the class, and what is happening in the audience? These are central questions that I have been grappling with for the past few years.

The book begins with exploration of the idea of fiction in the here and now. Power considers the concept of taking a story from another time or place and presenting it to an audience. How is this past event made “present?” He explores the role of technology in a new age of mediated performance. The ideas discussed in this section could help spark interesting explorations around the use of media in theater and story.

Also among the concepts discussed is the “auratic” theory of presence: the idea that an actor, production company, or playwright has an “aura” (or presence) that is strong. The question becomes: how does the story unfold without distractions from these auratic presences? For example, I recently saw Charles S. Dutton play Willy Loman at Yale Repertory Theatre. In this case you have several overwhelming auras in Arthur Miller, Charles Dutton, Yale Rep, and in the character Willy Loman. How does the spectator navigate such large presences and how do the artists themselves navigate these auras in the rehearsal process and in production?

Although the tone of the book is scholarly and theoretical (I often had to re-read passages to fully digest the ideas and flush out how my own experiences as an audience member and artist relate to the idea being discussed), Power’s book could be quite useful to educators, especially in helping them find a level of comfort in talking about works of theater with their students. The insight into the art of theater provided by his discussions about the “presentness” of the actor, character, and story on stage could help teachers expand the guided noticing process beyond the initial “What did you notice?,” deepening the students’ explorations. Confidence with this process can move teachers toward a sense of ownership of the aesthetic education practice. As a teaching artist at Lincoln Center Institute, this is a part of my practice that I am also trying to sharpen. Presence in Play exposes educators to a contemporary discussion about a relevant and current topic in today’s theater craft.

There was a time in history when a book was new technology. There were probably people who were walking around with scrolls complaining about how the people with books were disrupting the natural flow of life. Before that there was the stone tablet and when the scroll was invented, people carrying around stone tablets probably complained about the sissy people carrying around scrolls. We are now teaching to and creating for a generation that has no muscle memory or concept of the early Atari game system.

As concepts of virtual, as opposed to embodied, presence come into our conceptions of performance, and as theater professionals are plagued by struggles to make a story “live” and “resonate” with what is happening in the here and now (as I sometimes feel, myself), I find Power’s careful consideration of ideas around presence in contemporary theater very exciting. I know that I will work with film one day very soon, but hope to experiment with ways to gracefully incorporate the virtual with the live. More than any other book that I have read in a long time, Presence in Play left me with interesting questions that I know will provoke many conversations.

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