Stage Scene
Audience shapes 'Derelict' plot

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Doug Up, Nick Sayada, Jason Lyman, Danel Verdugo, Mariko Neubauer, Hank West and Mike Mariani in Cruel Theatre's "Derelict," an original interactive production. 'Derelict' 7 p.m. (and every half-hour through 10 p.m.) today and Saturday; repeats Thursday through Dec. 16 Kickstand Cafe, corner of Kona and Pensacola streets $7-$12 523-1004 Also: Space is limited and reservations are strongly encouraged.

Which makes it just this side of difficult, of course, for us to tell you anything — plotwise — about the director's plans for "Derelict," the latest production from her three-year-old interactive Cruel Theatre group.

Luckily, though, Kinoshita loves chatting at length about production details.

"For this show, I really wanted to focus on an experience," Kinoshita says. "My concentration was on this idea of having each member of the audience walk through the shoes of a character." In this case — and here, Kinoshita lets loose a crumb of plot revelation — experiencing what it might be like to live on the streets, all the while led by a youthful counterculture guide and a few of his or her, um, streetwise peers.

OK, so audience members park their cars, walk up to the entrance of Kickstand Cafe and then what?

"Before you walk in, you'll find our little makeshift box office outside," Kinoshita says. "We'll give you an audience card, which might say something like, 'Your name is Jimmy Smith. You are here to meet your friend Angela. You are very close and great friends.' You'll also get a costume piece, like a cap or a hat, which you'll be asked to wear visibly." Kinoshita pauses for effect. "Then we send you in the bar."

Expect the cafe to look like it always does. Barflies drinking, music playing, a few bikers throwing darts or warbling Steppenwolf and Foghat tunes on karaoke.

"That's when one of our actors, looking for someone with your costume piece, will walk up to you and maybe say, 'Jimmy! I'm so glad you could show up!" says Kinoshita, excitedly.

For the next hour, consider yourself a character in a continuing environmental play, as your new "best friend" introduces you to others in his group (including other "Derelict" attendees, like you, assigned a character before entering). As characters, Kinoshita says, audience members will have an opportunity to influence the plot line and ending with each improvised utterance.

"Derelict" has no written script. Instead, for the past several weeks Kinoshita's nine cast members have poured over and invented the minutiae of their characters.

"We work on getting a character that's strong, that's comfortable for each actor, and in which they can live and breathe in no matter what happens," Kinoshita says. "We do a complete character analysis. We determine a favorite color, whether or not the character has a pet, what the character's childhood may have been like. Everything."

Working with a basic structure for the play, the actors have trained in reacting to and improvising from the actions and conversations of audience members.

"Derelict" performances will start every half hour throughout the evening, with audience members spending an hour each living the performance with their assigned actor. Each performance intertwines with other performances starting or finishing up. Needless to say, reservations are strongly encouraged.

"Most people at the Kickstand will just be regular customers unaware that a show is going on," Kinoshita says of the "Derelict" production.