Gorilla Theater

Book excerpt: On a warm evening a man is crying Howl, howl, howl as he carries in his arms the body of a young woman. This isn't urban violence, it's Gorilla Rep's production of King Lear. There are no sets. The action uses available space: a parking lot, a pedestrian mall, a field. The audience - students, theater lovers, passersby, homeless people - move along with actors, from a tree to a fountain to a bench, and the audience may follow a portion of the performance or all of it. This is one of the most radical, and yet most easily available, concepts in theater: make the world the theater, make the world the audience. Christopher Carter Sanderson is the creator of an alternative theatrical concept: live free performance in public spaces. Featured in the New York Times, the Gorilla Rep productions are praised both for their acting and for the startling ingenuity of the concept. In this new book, Sanderson explains how theater can be made to work in any free space. He provides specific and practical advice for any performer or director, and relates stories from his own Gorilla Rep experience that show what the most unorthodox of theatrical techniques can achieve - without a theater, without a stage, and without a ticket to be sold.