Local performance troupe Emerald City Scene keep theater fresh

An audience member should always leave the theater changed. Plays and films should seek to provide environments in which the spectator is not merely allowed to observe, but is compelled to experience. This is the basis for the Emerald City Scene (ECS) manifesto.

Founded in 2006 by 25 UW theater majors, graduates and enthusiasts, the Emerald City Scene is a nonaffiliated, nonprofit theater performance group.

“Basically, we wanted to find a way to keep working with each other after graduation,” founding member Mike Jeppesen said.

Since forming, the troupe has grown to 35 members and still maintains its UW majority with a healthy 32 graduates and students.

Think what you will about manifestos and audience involvement; what it really comes down to is whether one can live up to his or her own challenge. This is where ECS finds its strength. The members wish to create an environment where the audience is not only enticed to experience, but made part of the show, which they manage to do.

Not a show hits the stage without an element of audience involvement. Don’t worry, you won’t be pulled unwillingly onstage or put unexpectedly on the spot—ECS is much more creative than that.

They may quiz you before, and get you drunk while watching the show. The members may seat you according to your philosophical affiliation, seat you on the stage or trick you into thinking you’re in a movie theater by screening previews for upcoming plays before the show. Such innovation may be mistaken for gimmicks, but if the result is a more active viewer, then it has done its job.

ECS’s first production came in 2007 with an adaptation of Sartre’s No Exit. The follow-up, Internal Monologue, a play in which four female leads play the mind of man, was the group’s first original work. Internal Monologue went on to be featured in the Edinburgh International Festival.

Season two kicked off with productions of Paul Vogel’s Desdemona, a modern take on Othello from the female characters’ perspectives and Copenhagen, a World War II-era pseudo-science play by Michael Frayn.

Their most recent production, The Shark and the Worm, was written and directed by member Nathaniel Porter.

“We’ve tried to do one original play each season,” Porter said.

The Shark and the Worm features costumed ushers presenting the audience members with cards, some asking them for simple commentary and others inviting them to participate in an interactive drinking game in which the recipient drinks each time his representative cast member drank onstage — all drinks free of charge.

ECS has also incorporated screen acting into the agenda. In July of 2007. The group filmed their first motion picture, The Perception Suite, telling the story of seven high school friends through a collection of four short films ranging in tone from documentary to thriller.

With the run of The Shark and the Worm over, and their second season complete, the ECS is in the planning phases of its third season. This summer will see them editing their film The Perception Suite. Look for the premiere in September. When asked about major plans for the future, Porter’s response was unequivocal: “Mainly, we’re looking for a permanent space.”

A note to all playwrights out there-the ECS is always looking for fresh scripts.