in 2006 is its nontraditional nature: it incorporates pageantry, song, and choreography, although it is not a musical. Tiff ffany believes that many diff fferent art forms push theater forward, so divisions between them should be dissolved. His vision of the theater of the future is interdisciplinary, dynamic, diverse, culture-driven, and, above all, fun. Answering his own question about whether theater can keep up with our rapidly changing world, Tiff ffany said, “ “Abso-bloody-lutely . But can you keep up with us?” A fair question—and if his track record is any indication, keeping up with him and his national theater could be a formidable task. ƒ
TONY RINALDO
Tiffany’s vision of the theater of the future is interdisciplinary, dynamic, diverse, culture-driven, and— above all—fun.
MORE THAN JUST WORDS Although he continued to work with the National Theatre of Scotland’s touring company during his fellowship year, John Tiff ffany also found new ways to energize the theater. At the Institute, he studied paralanguage—everything (other than words) that comes out of our mouths when we communicate. “We stutter and we stammer, and we um and ah and uh—and there’s a lyricism in that that we’ve only just begun to explore,” says Tiff ffany. He’s exploring these nuances in a project titled “I Speak, Therefore I Am.” Tiff ffany concedes that paralanguage may not seem as extreme as turning an airplane hangar or a whole town into a venue, but in a theater world where dialogue has been refi fined to within an inch of its life, he says, “it’s just as radical and as powerful a tool in terms of the evolution of theater.” Are you ready to listen diff fferently? Summer 2011 r a dc l i f f e m agazine
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