After by Andrew Schneider et al. (review)
AFTER expands on the vocabulary that Andrew Schneider developed in prior work, notably the Obie Award–winning YOUARENOWHERE. His is an aesthetic of emerging technologies merged with precise and virtuosic theatricality. AFTER is explicitly a sequel, in both theme and form, to this prior show, complete with many of the same tricks, including impossibly fast blackouts that, jump cut–like, transform the world of the play in seconds. Stage technologies are often an active player in Schneider’s work, propelling the action of the play forward or somehow intervening on performers’ actions or bodies. This vocabulary, as well as a collaboration with sound designer Bobby McElver, is deepened through innovative use of sound spatialization technology. Also directed by Schneider, the production of AFTER contemplated what might be after life, or at least after YOUARENOWHERE.
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AFTER’s aural magic was thanks to EMPAC’s state-of-the-art sound spatialization technology. Indeed, AFTER’s groundbreaking theatrical use of wave-field synthesis (WFS) was perhaps its most significant feature. Although such 3D audio systems are beginning to appear in some theatres, AFTER is the first production to use EMPAC’s system, and, developed during a residency at the center, the show is likely the first in which WFS was so heavily integrated, shaping both form and content. EMPAC’s WFS...
Matthew Clinton Sekellick. "After by Andrew Schneider et al. (review)." Theatre Journal 70, no. 4 (2018): 549-550. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed July 11, 2019).
