Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind

Preparing my performance art unit for my students, I remembered a production I saw in college in our X-perimental student-led theatre, called "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind" created by a group based in Chicago called the Neo-Futurists.

For those who don't know about it, it's essence is that it is 30 plays performed in 60 minutes, and the order of each 2-minute play is randomly selected (the Neo-Futurists roll dice, the performance I saw they asked the audience to pull balloons down from the ceiling with a  number on it). Each number coincides with a piece that the ensemble knows, and either performs as a whole or requires one or a few of the actors. The pieces are created through improvisation in rehearsals, and can range from something humorous to something dramatic, a reading, a song, a movement-based piece, anything that has derived through their rehearsal process. There is never the same order created twice, which makes each performance unique, which a different arc coming from the order of the pieces.

Here is a little trailer/promo to give you an idea of what they do. I am considering using this structure for a final performance for my Improv & Devising class, except maybe a bit shorter. Or it could be a good piece for a one-act type showcase, or senior showcase.

Great learning opportunity for students to get an idea of the possibility of performance art and live art, how it breaks traditional conventions of theatre and forces the audience to think differently about their relationship as an audience member to a performance piece.

One part of the show I remember is when the actor called and ordered a pizza and the audience called out how they wanted it ordered and then when the one pizza arrived, the audience had to share it. haha.