Assignment

Rapson 2022 was about creating a theater for truth. How to tell the truth about life and social situations? How to be an X-Ray of your time? How to break free from your individual echo chamber and find a consensus?

Most importantly, how can a theater stay in tune with community issues?

Concept

In order to stay in tune with the community issues, the theater needs to take these issues in. It needs to directly engage the people facing these issues.

This is why the theater is first a shelter for all those who need it, it is a canopy of trees where people can seek refuge. Shelter protects from the hostile outside world and makes problems inert, and examinable. Taking shelter is a crucial first step to finding the solution.

Under the canopy of trees, people bring their stories. Some stories even play out on the stages exactly as they are: the refugee crisis, the homelessness crisis, people seeking shelter from domestic abuse, or simply hiding from the harsh weather. Hundreds of stories would happen simultaneously. This is the Theater of Life.

After the crisis subsides, after the stories are heard, observed, and lived through, it is time for reflection, analysis, spreading awareness, and finding the path forward. It is done through theater performances. Here, the performance can't be untruthful when people in the audience saw the truth personally, when their actions inspired the performance and the characters, when they are available to talk to after the performance is over.

This is how the synergy between Life and Play, Shelter and Theater Works. They are inseparable and co-dependent, both spatially and conceptually.

Synergies

Synergies between life and play, shelter and theater, are ingrained into the architecture of the building. First of all, the building physically commits, with architecture, to being a shelter. It has shelter as a permanent part of its program.

Other spaces are flexible. They consist of platforms, all fully accessible with chair lifts, each with a unique point of view, features, and connection to the outside. On any given day, the platform can be a stage, a classroom, a shelter, or a gathering space. All platforms are interconnected with shared seating, which can be a place to watch a performance, a place to work, or a place to sleep on a bad day.

There are no prescribed paths through the building. The path to the truth is never linear. It lies through experiences, stories, and platforms of others. Only when you superimpose your experiences and stories over others can you start seeing the truth.

Informal Plays

Of course, the main tool at the Theater's disposal is performance. Performances here bridge the gap between Traditional Theater and Street Theater. Traditional Theater demands absolute silence, focus, and separation between auditoriums, audience, and actors. Street theater is directly engaging the audience and overpowers all the surrounding distractions, thrives on hecklers and improv. The Theater of Life creates a hybrid of the two. Power of the props, lights, and technologies of the indoors combined with the informal inclusive nature of the streets.

Imagine a promenade performance that starts spontaneously on the Shelter Platform, then moves to Black Box for introspection, then on the Tree Platform for the conclusion. Imagine two plays starting independently on Skyline and Tree Platforms, then colliding on the Street Platform for a unified finale. You get to experience the performance from multiple points of view, change your perspective, and try different platforms and starting points. You learn that the search for the truth never stops.

Connection to the site and community

Similarly, there are synergies between the building and the environment. The building follows the topography, to minimize site impact. The existing trees and vegetation are preserved, either in place or by relocating them on the roof.

The building utilizes solar and geothermal energy from the site. The structure and finishes inside and outside the building are wood, trapping carbon and effectively making the project carbon-neutral.

In winter, the building will take advantage of the ample solar gain. In summer, the shades will be lowered as needed. The shades will have shelter art installation and display people's signs. Regardless of how transparent the main facade is on any given day, the issues within lie bare.

Also, there are synergies between the Theater and the supporting organizations close by. The shelter is always the first step, and it provides the initial relief. But then theater understands the problem, and actively seeks and finds the solutions as well, inside, or outside. Is it a legislative problem that needs to be brought to the capital? Is it a medical problem? Is it an education problem? Is it an employment problem? Whatever it is, the Theater can find it and address it, and it won't be doing it alone.