Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind PDF Download

This collection of 200 short (very short) plays from The Neo-Futurists acclaimed cult hit "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" is the third collection from this prolific group of theater artists. (100 Neo-Futurist Plays, Chicago Plays, 1991 andNeo-Solo: 131 Neo-Futurist Solo Plays, Hope and Nonthings, 2002.) "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind," created by Greg Allen, debuted in Chicago in December, 1988, and has been playing to sold out houses ever since. The show presents 30 plays in 60 minutes, 50 weeks a year, to a devoted following. The ensemble of writer-performers generates between 2 and 12 new plays each week, as dictated by a roll of the dice, creating a constantly changing menu of plays. The material runs the gamut of style, tone, and topic: musical, confession, agit-prop, poeticgesture, physical comedy, puppet theater, audience interrogation, folk song, sex joke, and many more. The plays are funny, moving, challenging, powerful, and occasionally just plain weird, but all within The Neo-Futurists' trademark non-illusory aesthetic. There is no "fourth wall" in "Too Much Light" -- the show embraces the ideal that theater is created in the connection between audience and performer, in the two-way exchange of ideas, emotions, and energy, and in an honest exploration of everyday life. Randomness, dynamism, speed, brevity, and planned obsolescence are celebrated and exploited to engage and refresh participants on both sides of the theatrical equation. The 200 plays in this volume reflect the diversity of 27 ensemble members and the multiplicity of viewpoints and voices they bring to the stage. The plays stand as an entertaining document of some of the show's output from 1993 to 2002 history as well as ideal material for actor scene study, auditions, and competition presentations.