"Now, when I started my theater, the modus operandi was having the actors stare right into the audience"
About this Quote
Foreman’s “modus operandi” of having actors stare straight into the audience is less a quirky staging note than a declaration of war on theatrical comfort. The direct gaze yanks the viewer out of the soothing darkness where you’re allowed to forget your body, your reactions, your complicity. It refuses the old contract: we pretend it’s real, you pretend you’re not there. Foreman’s theater makes your presence the most unavoidable prop onstage.
The phrase “modus operandi” is doing quiet work, too. It’s procedural, almost clinical, suggesting a repeatable method rather than inspiration. That’s very Foreman: a formalist with an edge. The stare becomes a technique for breaking narrative hypnosis, an interruption device that turns spectatorship into a kind of self-surveillance. You’re not just watching a character; you’re being watched while you watch, forced to notice how quickly “meaning” is something you manufacture to stay comfortable.
Context matters: Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater grew out of the postwar avant-garde, a lineage that includes Brecht’s anti-illusion tactics and the downtown New York scene’s distrust of bourgeois realism. But the stare isn’t merely Brechtian “alienation” in textbook form; it’s more intimate and more accusatory. It reads like a challenge: if you came here for story, catharsis, and emotional outsourcing, what happens when the stage won’t let you hide? Foreman’s intent is to make theater less a window and more a confrontation with attention itself.
The phrase “modus operandi” is doing quiet work, too. It’s procedural, almost clinical, suggesting a repeatable method rather than inspiration. That’s very Foreman: a formalist with an edge. The stare becomes a technique for breaking narrative hypnosis, an interruption device that turns spectatorship into a kind of self-surveillance. You’re not just watching a character; you’re being watched while you watch, forced to notice how quickly “meaning” is something you manufacture to stay comfortable.
Context matters: Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater grew out of the postwar avant-garde, a lineage that includes Brecht’s anti-illusion tactics and the downtown New York scene’s distrust of bourgeois realism. But the stare isn’t merely Brechtian “alienation” in textbook form; it’s more intimate and more accusatory. It reads like a challenge: if you came here for story, catharsis, and emotional outsourcing, what happens when the stage won’t let you hide? Foreman’s intent is to make theater less a window and more a confrontation with attention itself.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|
More Quotes by Richard
Add to List
