"For so long, we've started every show with 'Ladies and gentlemen, please turn off your cell phones,'" says Bovine artistic director Eric Farone. "Now, we're encouraging them to do the opposite. We're still asking them not to actually make phone calls, but tweet, update Facebook statuses, take pictures, put them up on Picasso, whatever they want to do." That information is then centralized when audiences hashtag it to a Twitter fountain that plays during the show. But the info isn't just coming from the audience. Players also incorporate smartphones and social media into their performances; how and to what degree is up to the individual team that's performing, but it can go so far as players heading out to the street during a performance to take video.
"It's a multimedia barrage of information coming from the stage to the audience and from the audience to the stage," Farone concludes. "It's really weird."
Like This Show opens tonight at 8 p.m. at Bovine Metropolis Theater, 1527 Champa Street, and will continue every Friday for an open-ended. For tickets, $16, or more information, call 303-758-4722 or visit www.bovinemetropolis.com.
Fridays, 8 p.m. Starts: Jan. 6. Continues through April 27, 2012
