Sketchbook 2009: Q&A with Artistic Director Anthony Moseley

By Suzy Evans in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 17, 2009 7:00PM

A new location, an inaugural theme, photographers and devisers - oh my! Anthony Moseley, artistic director or Sketchbook, spoke to us about what makes Chicago’s annual seven-minute play festival worth your while.

Can you tell our readers a little bit about Sketchbook 2009?
This is our 9th annual Sketchbook, and we started with the idea of presenting short plays in a mixed media environment. This year’s festival is really exciting because we’ve introduced a devised work section in which directors and ensembles are creating works in rehearsal in addition to the normal short plays submitted by playwrights. We’re also working with an ensemble of fourteen professional photographers who have each been matched with a different play, and we’ve also, for the first time, introduced an overall theme to the festival, which for this year is “The New American Fable.”

We’re fully embracing the BYOB aspect of this year’s festival. Bertolt Brecht said, “Theater without beer is a museum,” and we will not have any museum vibe going on over at Sketchbook this year.

What exactly is devised work?
The idea is that there’s an ensemble of theater artists that create it together. They write a script along the way and say “this is what we’re doing,” but really they do it as an ensemble. The actors, the director, the writer, the designers, and photographer are making this thing together in rehearsal process. Each different ensemble has their own structure and language and vocabulary. It’s a very collaborative creative process. They all have a lead deviser who can really act as the director and leader of the vision.

What is the significance of the “New American Fable” theme?
A fable is a morality tale and in this very fast-paced multimedia world where things seem to be going in every different direction at the same time, does a morality tale even exist anymore and what does it look like? It seems like we get more of our morality tales from YouTube these days. And then when you say “New American Fable,” a new American morality play, how do artists interpret that, ask that question, and attempt to answer it? Hopefully it’ll ultimately help us reflect on what it means to be an American and what our morals are, what our values are and what’s important.

Why did you decide to add the photographers and what’s their role in the festival?
Every year we rotate out a different collaborating artist. We work with painters, sculptors, video designers and last year we invited all the audience to be a collaborator by submitting stuff over the internet to incorporate into the show. We love photography. We think photography and theater go hand in hand in they way of capturing the live moment that theater creates as well as the design and performance aspects. These 14 photographers are really pouring their work into creating iconic piece of photography. And all of the photography created is going to be part of the live experience at Sketchbook. [Note: Watch this awesome video about the creation of one of the photos.]

Why did you move to The Building Stage this year?
We just felt it was time to move on. As much as we would have liked to stay at Steppenwolf for the rest of the festival’s lifetime, it just ultimately felt like there were some things that we couldn’t do in the Garage. Architecture is so important to the festival, we just felt it was time to explore some new architecture. The building stage has high high ceilings. It’s got a clean, raw warehouse feel. It’s a great location.

Has the audience always been standing?
The festival has always tried to be a progressive as possible with the audience’s interaction with the art and the theater and get away from the static, sitting in the dark, falling asleep while somebody’s doing some long theater. We want it to be immersive, dynamic, social, provocative and intellectual experience. The best way to do that is to get people out of their seats.

Will the actors be interacting with the audience?
Every play we’ll be rearranging the audience because the plays will take place in different formations. And one of the plays, which is called “A Domestic Disturbance at Little Fat Charlie's Seventh Birthday Party,” that play will be using audience members as the puppets of the play. Three audience members will come on stage and become the lead characters and they will be puppeteered by the ensemble. In other plays, the actors will be right in the middle of the audience. It’s very interactive and it will be happening everywhere. That being said if you’re one of those people who is a little stage-shy, you’ll be able to hide in the back.

Lastly, is there any significance to the seven-minute length?
That whole 10-minute play thing sometimes feels a little contrived. By just shortening it a little bit, we could dare the writer to be more efficient and maybe take more chances and not feel like they had to wrap everything up so neatly. It’s really interesting to watch a whole world come and go before your eyes in seven minutes.

The 9th annual Sketchbook festival runs April 16 to May 10 at The Building Stage, 412 N. Carpenter. Tickets are $15 for students or any "freelance human," Moseley said. Or you can get unlimited admission into the festival with a festival pass for $40. General admission is $25. Buy tickets and see schedule here.