Seattle performance group, The Boondogglers, are back from the 90’s and have a production coming up that may have some viewers questioning the way they watch film and stage performances.

“Whack-job,” is an original work that mixes live performance with video, written by neurologist and playwright, James Jordan (MD, BFA) and directed by and starring, Dan Gildark.

"Whack-job" is not a typical play, mainly because while an audience member is enthralled by the theatrics, their brain waves and other physiological measurements are being recorded. It’s a multimedia comedy as well as a cognitive psychological experiment measuring audience attention using eye tracking, surveys, EEG (Electroencephalography), heart rate and other observations.

The experimental play will be performed at West of Lenin Theatre (203 N. 36th St), starting December 4 through 6 and 11 through 13 at 8 p.m. To prime spectators, a preview-show, followed by a discussion on “Cognition of Spectatorship,” will be December 3.

“This is the first performance in a long time, and I feel like we have all grown up as artists in our separate world. What I love is that we are working with close friends and we are a tight knit group. … It feels like a lot of people left and came back, and so I think that the whole arts scene is more mature, ” said Gildark.

Jordan and Gildark both bring artistic and professional insight to the project.

Jordan is a graduate of Case Western University with a medical degree in neurology and an NYU trained playwright. Jordan has written five plays while being with The Boondogglers.

Gildark went to film school in Portland, Ore., and directed and produced a feature film called, “Cthulhu," that won two ‘Best of Fest’ awards on the festival circuit.

Dan Gildark. Photo by Shane Harms.

THE STUDY

According to Jordan, the three theatrical theories being analyzed are those established by Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht (alienation, or distancing effect) and Augusto Boal (as outlined in the “Theater of the Oppressed”).

Jordan has set “punctuated points” in the play where they will measure differences in audience reaction. These points measure the viewers response to the three theatrical theories depicted on stage or film.

One technique in the testing is that the filmed recordings of the stage performance are played for the audience and the footage functions as an element of the plot as well as experimental stimuli. During the performance they connect a few audience members to EEG and other recording machines and project the EEG on a screen during the play. In addition, surveys are passed out asking attendees what stood out in the play.

The group has two research questions: Is there a difference in how well one theatrical theory/technique captures the attention from the other, and is there a difference in audience attention between live-performances and filmed.

Their hypothesis is that “live performance will grab and direct attention better than mediated.”  

Jordan said it will be “a huge win for theater geeks over Hollywood, if it’s true.”

As one of the controls, Jordan said that the order in which the filmed and live portions will be viewed changes in every performance. They hope to publish a paper based on the findings.

THE PLAY

So what will the audience be watching?

The plot centers on a deranged, greed/power hungry corporate executive who has found a way to live forever. The villain, Mott Waite –- played by Gildark –- incorporates himself, and becomes “Mr. Corporation, LLC.” Mr. Corporation takes over Pfizerck -- a multinational pharmaceutical company -- as CEO and uses ruthless tactics in neuromarketing to sell a premiere erectile dysfunction drug called “Boner-T.” The protagonist, John, a hungry young anarchist, finds out how to stop Pfizerck and there’s an iconic “Final Boss” face off, where radical meets menacing.

An interesting element of the play is that the audience eventually realizes that they themselves are Pfizerck’s human clinical trial, while at the same time they really are part of a real life clinical trial in a cognitive experiment.

Themes that arise from the play are steeped in unrestrained capitalism, neuromarketing propaganda, fear mongering of a population and the unethical exploitation of sick people for profits.

“Big Pharma continues to be one of the most profitable industries, making money often in unethical ways. As a doctor, I particularly don’t enjoy them trying to hoodwink me and manipulate me.  It me off.  These are my patients, who are sick and trust that I know what the I’m talking about with my drugs. … Yet they do it, and it often works. Makes my whole profession look bad,” said Jordan.

An ironic element that touches the heart of the play is Mott’s character being based on the Chief Justice Morrison Remick “Mott” Waite of the Supreme Court, who enacted racist Jim Crow laws in the 1870’s and set the precedent for Corporate Personhood. The Boondogglers describe Gildark’s role as “Mott” as “a conceptual-performance-art piece."

“There’s so much wrong with our world, these plays definitely always have 'points.' This time around namely with Big Pharma and the ethics of human clinical trials.”

The play has an unavoidable Orwellian or “Brave New World,” quality, that satirically moves pressing current issues to the center stage.

“We are making the statement the corporations can be people too. … In the play the company is using neuromarketing techniques. A lot of the same techniques that we are using to monitor the audience members are the same tools that the pharmaceutical industry and other industries are using in their advertising,” said Gildark.

FINDINGS SO FAR

“Wack-job” debuted in Vancouver, BC a couple weeks ago and Jordan and Gildark are excited to perform the play in front of their home audience and view the data that comes from it.

“I’m already seeing that there are definitely state changes at the Brechtian and Boal ‘points,’ but defining the ‘punctuated events’ within the ‘realism’/Aristotelian sections is difficult.  I am going with major plot points and emotional character shifts.  Technically, the whole play – except for the brief Brechtian and Boal events  – is “Aristotelian,” said Jordan.

Jordan reported that he plans to tweak the study if needed as they move forward, and that there are still most questions than answers in the data. He said that he plans to complete the study and simply find what patterns stand out.

“Overall, this is a comedy actively doing some science. We want people to have fun.  The politics are always the same as they were in our shows in the 1990’s:  we should all try to stay smart, stay skeptical, call out the, have fun, and clean up after ourselves.”

Learn more at www.boondogglerstheater.com

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Shane Harms can be reached at shaneh@robinsonnews.com and at @ShaneHarmsNW on Twitter.