bb brecht

IN PROCESS  Miranda on becoming bb brecht: “bb brecht has arrived to rediscover suffering, exhaustion and desperation. Where do I go to discover suffering and desperation? You go on social media. You go on the internet. You take a selfie and post it on Instagram. That is the ultimate combination of suffering and desperation. It feels fun for me to be able to create this person who is actively trying to rediscover the very thing that inspires him.”

Miranda will create videos and other content to present on bb brecht’s own Instagram feed, TikTok, YouTube, twitch, Streamyard. In addition to building context and delight in the character of bb brecht, digital content is incorporated right into the live performances: online content that’s accessible and enjoyable in itself and an intrinsic part of public performance! All grounded in the concept that digital, live, and hybrid performance feed each other, artistically and in how audiences participate—Brecht’s own definition of epic theater.

More from Miranda: “I truly believe that theatre is the gesamtkunstwerk —the total work of art … Every single artistic medium can walk through the door and be welcomed by theater. bb brecht is my expression of all the inspirations that led to my career in theater (Berlin, linguistics, and an obsession with ephemerality) and also fuses my multi-hyphenate theater identities (director, educator, writer and performer). bb brecht combines theater and content. I’m imagining there are images on the Instagram grid, there are PowerPoint presentations, there’s me at the lectern giving lectures about the state of the American theater, and then breaking out into song and having choreographed dance, then playing music videos and performing music live like it’s 106 and Park.

I imagine my ultimate venue to be something like a Joe’s Pub, but I feel excited about ways to create that space in other venues, whether that’s eateries, restaurants, warehouses or basements. Anywhere we can have an intimate and intentional Weimar-era-esque space a la Babylon Berlin, where people can also sit and eat and drink. I’m going to continue to write and make so that between iterative performances bb brecht also lives on digitally, and that digital content will be part of the live performance.

All theater artists are scrappy and innovative—bb brecht would not exist without the legacy of downtown theater artists. What feels so exciting to me is what artists are making on TikTok and Instagram and just in general with iPhones. I shot the entire ich liebe zu lange music video on my iPhone … it cost me $300 for a green screen and two flood lamps. I hope that as we’re facing this achievement and scarcity gap, more folks are starting to create in ways that exist outside of the need for a big show and can just do it with what they already have.

I hope that we can start to appreciate individual artists as makers in their own right, using TikTok and Instagram because that costs under $300 and to make a play still costs 10 times as much. We’re going to lose theater if we’re afraid of venturing out to other places and spaces that can be olive branches to the tree that is theater. And bb brecht is one of those branches.”

LEARN MORE  ABOUT MIRANDA HERE

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