Towards an Actor Neutral Theater

We're not audiences, we're vidiences. It's cramping my style, and your experience.

How much of prejudice is visual?

I’d argue almost all of it. The way a person looks, dresses and holds themselves takes a split second for us to parse - and requires an enormous force of will to overlook. Sure, we only have limited time and attention. But is it the best use of those scarce resources to automatically reinforce what we think we already know?

I believe the whole point of art is anti-prejudice. Art says ‘Look at this familiar situation from a fresh perspective. Bit more interesting now, eh?’

Perspective is the active ingredient in art’s antidote to prejudice. Perspective gives us access to the minds and souls of others. I believe literature is a perspective-generating machine. I believe theater is a pillar of literature - perhaps its cornerstone - because unlike the solo act of reading, theatre offers fresh perspective in collective real time: it’s group reading out loud.

If prejudice is primarily visual, then we’re in a bit of a pickle because visual culture is in the asce…