The Curtain Rises...

You sit forward on your seat, straining to see into the shadows as the plush red folds ascend, giving way to... what? Perhaps a grandiose scene from Ancient Rome, or the bleak image of a subway train, rattling through underground caverns. You are there to experience something - something important (you went all the way to the theatre, didn't you?) - and yet you are not quite sure what awaits you in the hours and minutes to come.

Perhaps you are there to forget yourself, to immerse yourself in fantasy and fly away. Perhaps, instead, you seek thrills and excitement, or are drawn by the allure of the forbidden. Maybe you just want to laugh, and feel your worries slough off like shed skin. You may even be there to be terrified or made miserable, to see horrors unfold before your eyes.

But one thing is certain - the experience should leave you with fresh ways to view the world beyond the theatre-walls, new perspectives that enrich your life outside. Ideally, your experience in the theatre should help you learn something, help you understand the world better - or at least differently. The shared-experience the theatre offers should not cease to affect you when you exit the space, but stay with you, nudging you towards new ways of seeing.

The Theatre of Thought is dedicated to providing such experiences. When we create or critique a show our primary perspective will be this: 'What can the audience learn from this? How will their ideas be advanced or challenged? How enduring are the new lenses this piece offers? How fully does it enrich the lived-experience of the theatre-goer?'

Of course, no dramatic offering can be successful without commanding the attention of the spectator, so a second strand of inquiry will seek to examine whether the work is compelling, and for which audiences it can be expected to function most fully.

Finally, as students of dramatic form, we will ask the questions 'How does this work work? How is it achieving the effects it achieves?'

We hope that these musings, informed by aesthetic philosophy, poetics, cognitive research etc. will be of value to those who love watching and making theatre and those who want to develop a better understanding of how theatre does what it does.

Welcome to the Theatre of Thought!