Extremely Public Displays of Privacy

With Extremely Public Displays of Privacy, New Paradise Laboratories enhanced and challenged the conventions of the live theatrical experience with a production that used new modes of social networking and virtual communication to merge theater and mobile technology. Extremely Public Displays of Privacy was performed and filmed at sites both public and private. Audiences were able to track the meeting and evolving relationship of the show's two characters in "Web-isode" video clips, captured text-message exchanges, and a dreamlike collage of music online. They could also visit specific filming sites around the city, where a podcast through headphones and images on a handheld device guided viewers to precise locations. The project culminated in a live concert by one of the two actresses in the show, Annie Enneking, who performed in a self-styled bunker where her character had retreated to escape the influence of her on-screen lover.

Key artists Whit MacLaughlin as director and Jorge Cousineau as media designer, both Obie Award winners, sought to create a piece that challenged theatrical form with the potential to reach a world audience through three separate but connected parts.

SoundCloud features songs from the production here.