Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind
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Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes (TMLMTBGB) is the longest running show in Chicago and the only open-run Off-Off-Broadway show in New York. Starting in 1988, the show has run 50 weekends of the year since then. As its subtitle states, the show consists of 30 short plays performed in a 60 minute space, written, directed, and performed by a small ensemble called the Neo-Futurists. The plays tend to be a mixture of autobiography and performance art, as with much of the Neo-Futurists' work.
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[edit] History
Neo-Futurism as an aesthetic, as well as the format of TMLMTBGB, are both creations of founder Greg Allen, although, due to the changing roster of plays in TMLMTBGB, Allen has not actually had a play in the show at all times during its run.
The production has been generally favored by theater critics including The Onion.
To date, three volumes of plays from the show have been published.
[edit] Tone of the show
The show is the work of the Neo-Futurists movement, and reflects their aesthetic of non-illusory theater, where, as they describe it, "all of our plays are 'set' on the stage on front of the audience. All of our 'characters' are ourselves... We do not aim to 'suspend the audience's disbelief' but to create a world where the stage is a continuation of daily life" (Allen 3).
[edit] Structure
The ticket price for the show is random, with a fixed number (currently $9 for the Chicago show) being added to the roll of a six-sided die for each person. Upon payment, a member of the cast, wearing headphones and sunglasses (though the headphones and sunglasses have not been worn as often in recent years), shouts "What's your name?" at the audience member before giving them a nametag with a totally unrelated name. Audience members are given a menu of play titles, and plays are selected by audience members shouting their number, with the first number heard being the play performed. Plays end when a member of the cast shouts "curtain!"
The list of plays is perpetually rotating. Every week a minimum of between two and twelve plays (determined by two rolls of a die by someone in the audience) are removed from the "menu" and replaced with new plays, written in the course of the week.
There is a tradition for the show, that whenever a particular evening sells out, pizza is ordered. The slogan is "When we sell out, we order out." Generally, a cast member pulls out his or her cellphone, calls the local pizza place, and has the audience shout that toppings they would like.
[edit] New York Troupe
A second Neo-Futurist company was founded in New York City in April 2004. The New York Neo-Futurists perform TMLMTBGB at the Kraine Theater in the East Village. This production has its own ensemble members, and thus contains different short plays from the Chicago show. In 2006, the New York Neo-Futurists were the recipients of the New York Innovative Theatre Awards Outstanding Performance Art Production.
[edit] References
Allen, Greg. 100 Neo-Futurist Plays from Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Chicago: Chicago Plays, 2002.
