Even a very small theater company can put together a mind-blowing performance in any theater or even a classroom. Director Rubin Polendo was able to do just that and share his insights exclusively with us. Unlike movies today, where anything is possible because of the special effects, there is only that much you can do in an enclosed, live theater. As Rubin Polendo pointed out, you have to use a little bit of imagination on the audience’s behalf. If an actor has to shoot someone during a performance, he doesn’t need a gun; he can shoot someone with sunglasses. All the actor has to do is take a pair of glasses and introduce it to the audience as a gun. Then he can shoot anyone with his glasses and audience will be receptive, because they will understand that sunglasses is in fact a gun.
Unlike the movies where everything is shown, every little detail, any kind of a building or place, leaving nothing to the imagination of the viewers, there is only that much you can do in a theater. As Rubin Polendo said, “We cannot bring an ocean into a theater, therefore we have to do the best we can to find something that can represent it.” In a theater, the audience has to be receptive enough to be able to understand and imagine that ocean. For example in Blind mouth singing, the well, instead of being vertical as it is in the real world, was horizontal. The audience has to understand and make sense of that. The reason Rubin Polendo chose to do so is because that gives another perspective to the audience, a special viewing angle that allows us to see everything with a much better perspective. One advantage of everything being vertical is that when Reidirico spoke into the well, we (the audience) were able to see Lucero speak back. Throughout the play, there was so much action involved in that well. For example, when Reiderico was pulling Lucero out of the well, we would have never been able to see all the struggles, had the well been vertical as it is in real life. If this play were a movie, director would be able to film it from all sorts of different angles so that on the screen we wouldn’t miss any part of the action. However, there would be nothing left to our imagination. Because the audience sits at one spot, we have one viewing angle and because the well was vertical we got the best possible view. It is very interesting how while you watch the play, you never think of these details. However after our interview with Rubin Polendo, we understood just how meticulous and thoroughly thought out every detail was.
Actors in the “Blind Mouth Singing” were able to completely isolate themselves from the rest of the world and perform as if no one was watching. In a bigger theater, lights can certainly help the actors do that, because they enable the audience to see the stage, at the same time making it a lot harder for the actors to see the audience. However Reiderico did a phenomenal job isolating the audiences when he acted out a small part of the play in the classroom. He was literally 3 feet away from students who were sitting in the front row, but it was as if they didn’t exist. His mind was somewhere else. In his eyes you could see that he was in another world. As he later explained, this was because of the fourth wall the actors create in their minds between the audience and themselves. Because of this “world”, it’s as if the actors are in a different world, detached from everyone else. It’s as if they are in their own room, doing whatever they are doing and completely unconscious of the audience’s presence.
Blind Mouth Singing is a perfect example of a brilliantly designed play, which does not require a big financial budget, but does impress its audience. For about sixty thousand dollars, which is considered very little for a play production, they were able to impress us all, with their mind-blowing performance. After all it’s not the money that makes the play intriguing, it’s how well the director has thought it through, and how well the actors were able to articulate the meaning of the play. Blind Mouth Singing is the perfect example that does both.