Flirting with relapse

We don't control the content of our dreams. If we did, I would've killed this one in the bud: I woke up with plans for a new hyperdrama in my head.

My last work in hyperdrama was in summer, 2008. According to Astrid Ensslin, I coined the term (reference), which may or may not be true, but at any rate I've done enough work in the form to earn an international reputation. Consequently I was invited to make a presentation about hyperdrama to the national hypertext conference in Pittsburgh, summer of 2008. Some two decades earlier, I had attended the first hypertext conference at Yale, networked, but hadn't gone to another.

I both liked and disliked the invitation. I didn't like the idea of flying 3000 miles to make a one-hour presentation to a handful of interested academics. However, I always embrace the opportunity to tell anyone who will listen that hyperdrama is an important new dramaturgy. So I suggested a video presentation, which wouldn't require me to be there personally, and this was accepted. The result was Changing Key, a video hyperdrama and lecture-demonstration.

One of the more interesting moments in the presentation is near the end, in the video called Nuts & Bolts, in which I present the design for a permanent "hyperdrama theater." The form will never catch on until an adventurous theater company gives it a permanent home. My design would make this possible.

What was in my head this morning was a duct tape version of this design. The theater space could be any classroom. Chairs are moved to form a square in the center of the room, all facing outward. Each side of the square faces a playing area, giving the "theater" four spaces for actors. The play would require 8-13 actors and be short -- ten to fifteen minutes. At the end of each performance, after a blackout, the play would be preformed again, and done a total number of four times. Each audience member would change seats to a new side of the square before each new performance.

I am still trying to educate an audience, you see. Now I said I would have killed this idea in the bud, which means I have no energy to pursue this. However, it is a fine idea, easily managed in technical terms, and would demonstrate the nature of hyperdrama in a clear and, yes, dramatic way. Of course, one has to write the short play (not so short when script pages are multiplied by four). I should never say never -- maybe on my death bed I'll scribble out a script. Right.

My greatest accomplishment in hyperdrama continues to be my unseen, unread, unproduced and ignored version of Chekhov, the Seagull Hyperdrama. However, I did get some academic brownie points for it:

I am writing to congratulate you on publishing The Seagull Hyperdrama -- an original translation and expansion of Chekhov's classic play The Seagull -- into the hyperdrama form on the Internet.

Faculty productivity at this level is a source of pride for the Department of English, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Portland State University.

Dean
Portland State University

I irrationally retain the faith that one day a visionary, ambitious artistic director will found a theater company dedicated to producing hyperdrama in a permanent theater space. If I were in my 20s, I'd do this myself. It doesn't seem to be happening in my lifetime but it will happen because the result will be full of energy and dramatic insights that will attract audiences. Traditional theater will be seen as a special case of hyperdrama. Yes, yes and yes.