Participants and performers share the old ticketing lobby. Image courtesy of @tastoid.
The Industry desperately wants you to get out of your comfort zone with INVISIBLE CITIES, a new headphone opera currently at Los Angeles’ Union Station. This world premiere is designed around the transience of the moment amongst the hustle and bustle of Southern California transit, it’s ridership, and the desperation of transients seeking refuge in a public space.
It makes for an interesting mix. The classic audience base for opera in LA is what causes an incredibly mysterious downtown traffic nightmare on Eastbound Temple Street before LA Opera matinees. Even though the piece is staged at what could well be considered Los Angeles County’s main public transit hub, the vast majority of patrons drove their cars to the show, and many were experiencing the opulence of Union Station for the very first time.
INVISIBLE CITIES begins and concludes in two areas normally closed off to the public (yet available for party rentals and film shoots.) The ingenuity of a live performance streamed by headphone to the audience is awakened as the crowd fans out into the main lobby and patio grounds of Union Station. The Industry invites each participant to direct their own version of the show. The viewer is trusted with the power to give equal weight and focus to the singers and dancers of the company or any of the unknowing participants that are merely living their lives and passing through Union Station throughout the duration of the performance.
No two participants perceive the same experience, find the same meaning, create a personal relevance in the same way. While this is true for any and every artistic endeavor, INVISIBLE CITIES is more akin to a choose your own adventure book… better yet, a video game with a large, freely navigable field of play. The audience can be as adventurous as it chooses, utilizing hidden backdoors to traverse the omnipresent stage, finding unique locations to take in each vignette, even choosing to share their headphones with a stranger so they can get a better idea of why there is a gaggle of people strolling about Union Station with massive grey headgear.
And about those headphones… the entire idea of a live performance being streamed to headphones sounds a bit gimmicky. And it is. But it also works, allowing participants a freedom of movement unlike most performances. The headphones and technologies supporting them are not perfect, and cyclical interference from some unknown source plagued the transmission with a repetitive clicking. When in the same room as the orchestra, the cans were completely unnecessary, and when within earshot of a singing performer, the performance felt truer with the headphones removed, or at least allowing one ear to hear the vocalist live.
INVISIBLE CITIES works. It allows for magical moments each participant can choose to find with a performer, an unsuspecting traveller, or even a self discovered epiphany. It is a more formalized step up from the three Meet Me at Metro transit oriented, site specific performances of the past few years, and indicates that the MTA may be willing to work with the performance community to enliven our public spaces with non-static art.
It would be unfair to posit much thematic context on the show. It is so intrinsically tied to each participant’s experience that to distill a meaning is moot. It is safe to say that The Industry is attempting to open the minds of it’s audience to a wider sense of community, an ownership and acceptance of the city and it’s denizens without exclusion. Because INVISIBLE CITIES takes place on property open to the public, it is possible to experience much of the performance without purchasing a ticket. Take this unique show in. Choose to witness it yourself. With the headphones if you can… and without them if you must.
TICKETS AND PRICING
GENERAL ADMISSION: $25.00
OPENING NIGHT $150. Most nights 7:30pm: $60, $75 VIP 10:00pm: $45, $60 VIP. Tuesday nights at 10pm $25. VIP ticketing includes dedicated Box Office & a glass of wine at VIP section of the Fred Harvey Restaurant with the creative after the show.
Thematic content includes: Redemption, Love, Self Destruction, Singing, Live Music, Dance/ Movement, Site Specific
DATES AND TIMES
This show runs:
10/19/2013 to
11/08/2013
Tuesdays: 7:30pm & 10:00pm Thursdays: 7:30pm & 10:00pm Fridays: 7:30pm & 10:00pm Saturdays: 7:30pm & 10:00pm Sundays: 2:00pm
Opening night 10/19: 7:00pm ONLY • Additional Performances on 10/24, 10/26, 10/29, 10/31, 11/5, 11/8: 7:30pm and 10pm.
Union Station: 866-811-4111 MAP
OR BY PHONE
866-811-4111
ADDITIONAL INFO
Union Station
800 N Alameda Ave
Los Angeles, CA
90012
866-811-4111
OR BY PHONE
866-811-4111
ADDITIONAL INFO
Union Station
800 N Alameda Ave
Los Angeles, CA
90012
866-811-4111
OR BY PHONE
866-811-4111
ADDITIONAL INFO
Union Station
800 N Alameda Ave
Los Angeles, CA
90012
866-811-4111
OR BY PHONE
866-811-4111
Union Station: 866-811-4111
MAP
Cyrian Reed, photo by Eric Tyler.
