Tired of static virtual play readings seen through the all-too-familiar “Brady Bunch” window? Milwaukee theater troupe Cooperative Performance has turned online obstacles into opportunities with an innovative spin on virtual performance.
RE: Social/Divide, the company’s new production opening virtually on Friday, embraces both the concepts and constraints of online production, exploring the media’s limitations and its effect on humankind, according to Andrew Coopman, the play’s writer and director. “The show’s thesis asks all of us to remember that the person on the other side of the glass screen is human, too, and we all need that core of human connection,” says Coopman, a third-year MFA student in directing at the University of Washington-Seattle.
Coopman connected with Cooperative Performance for the production through company board secretary Alan Piotrowicz, whom he knew from time spent as theatrical colleagues in New York City. Coopman was seeking an outlet for his production at a time when the Milwaukee troupe had a different play fall though. Serendipity brought the two together for what promises to be a uniquely remarkable performance.
“The play explores the relative relationship between truth and social media,” says Coopman, a Wheaton, Illinois, native. “Society has seen a deep dive into the division between truth, reality and fact. They don’t mean the same thing anymore, and we explore how they come together and interact with social media.”
Exploring Ideas
Narratively speaking, RE: Social/Divide follows a workweek in the lives of staff members of The Social Mag, a fictional Chicago-based publication. Bringing the staff together in light of the now disparate social elements drives the action. But, Coopman says, that’s just the beginning.
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“The show is interdisciplinary, a devised piece with vignettes, video, dance, photography and music,” says the director. “It’s an exploration of ideas. Our entire history has been living what it has meant to be human. But what was true 100 years ago isn’t necessarily true anymore.”
The 75-minute multi-dimensional show explores that thesis within the narrative’s confines. But Coopman has taken the production the next step, establishing an Instagram page outside of the narrative to which the cast and crew actively contribute thoughts and ideas. Logging onto the page before, during and after the performance brings a unique dimension and character understanding and interaction not found in other online productions.
“As a culture we have experienced huge trauma from the pandemic. Theater isn’t what it once was and that’s scary,” Coopman says. “But the artist is called upon to look at the now and make art based on what’s currently happening. And right now we’re learning quite a lot.”
Cooperative Performance’s production of RE: Social/Divide streams on demand from March 12 through April 11. For more information and tickets, visit cooperativeperformance.org. To access the show’s Instagram account, go to @re_social_divide.
