On Saturday, i participated in Portland Center Stage’s experiment with allowing a limited number of people to blog/post to twitter during a performance of the new play Apollo.  i’m still reflecting on the experience but want to write about some aspects of it while it’s fresh in my mind.

Since the play is in 3 acts, I think I’ll do this blog post in 3 acts too.

Act 1: Before

I’ve been following PCS on Twitter for awhile now.  As an aside, PCS uses Twitter very, very well.  Some businesses and organizations seem to get it, others don’t.  PCS does.  @pcsghost manages to get me excited about the plays without feeling like i’m being marketed to in an icky way.  A couple weeks ago, they offered via a twitter post, $10 tickets to the first 10 (?) people who responded with their interest in “live tweeting” their new play Apollo.  i jumped right on that shit without really thinking about whether i had any interest in “live tweeting” the event.  I love to see theater but i don’t have a lot of money so the opportunity to take my sweetie out to a big new play for a mere $20 for the pair of tickets was too good to pass up.

What have I done? i don’t even like twitter!

Okay, tickets ordered.  Sinking feeling.  I am the worst possible person to do this!  i’m someone who won’t use the word “tweet”, who gets a bad taste in her mouth when she uses the word “twitter” as a verb.  Although, with over 800 twitter posts since i signed up in June, i was almost certainly the last person laboring under the impression that i am an ironic and reluctant twitterer.   Okay.  So.  Yeah.  I use twitter.  Kind of a lot, as it turns out.  Hadn’t quite admitted that to myself yet.

Okay, i like twitter, but i have this other pet peeve…

what do i hate more than anything?  i hate those people who are sitting behind you in the movie theater and they’re talking about their opinion of the movie during the movie. i hate it when i’m walking out of a play and my companion says “so what did you think?”.  Dude, I don’t know what i think yet.  Give me a couple of days.  Let me stay in my imagination-brain for a little while.  I’ll switch to my critical-brain later, don’t worry.  But for now, I want to enjoy that whole “suspension of disbelief” thing.  During all but the very worst plays/movies/whatever, I tend to enjoy myself during the performance.  I am pretty committed to giving myself over to the entertainment and letting it entertain me.  moment by moment, I’m willing to forgive it all of its sins.  Later, after I’ve reflected, I may savage it but in the moment, i try to enjoy it or…enjoy isn’t even the word…i guess i try to just uncritically experience it.  Sometimes I really feel like many people take in culture merely for the purpose of having opinions about it.

Not to say that i don’t approve of criticism.  Good criticism and commentary can delight and inform.  but when you’re loudly offering your strong opinions about the piece during the curtain call or while the credits are rolling, you’re not a critic, you’re an asshole.

By agreeing to comment on the play during the play wasn’t i basically agreeing to be a total asshole?

So, I had some ambivalence about this going in.  That said, I really was intrigued to find out how the experiment went.  What would all those twitter posts look like?  (crazy, kind of interesting) Would you get any sense of the play by looking at them? (no idea) What would they add to the experience of seeing the play?  (more on that later) When the PCS folks look at the twitter posts, what would they be able to take from them? (i’d be curious to know) What would it be like for me, personally? (weird)  Would I be able to pay attention to the play? (kind of)  Would I feel self-conscious? (yes)

i worked myself up into a kind of excitement before the play and headed downtown for some lovely pre-show cocktails and then on to the show…

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