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Sometimes you just want to watch some magic.
You assumed the jack of hearts was over here, but no!
He is over there!
That is just about the level of shock I can sustain right now in my entertainment viewing.
Guimaraes is looking backwards too, though not at a legacy of flimflam artists and high-deceivers.
Youare doing the magic!
he cries at us, as he suddenly fans out an obedient deck, somehow rearranged in order.
(If no one laughs at a comedy, it isnt a comedy anymore.)
InThe Present,I felt that sizzle again of being part of Guimaraess creation.
I couldnt simply be passive our mics were on, and I needed tooohandaahto keep the magical mood alive.
But it was this third kind of contact, the audience-plus-performer spark, that makesThe Presentsuch a gift.
Because what exactly makes something feel live?
Not what is technically considered live, which just means we are watching something as it happens.
Rather what actually registers with a watcher as the sensation of liveness?
These videos sometimes contain a little of their original conditions, but we arent watching a now anymore.
Each of these productions do, though, teach the industry about an emerging art form.
(It is livestreaming through June 13.)
Were really at the beginning of the rules of new creation, Wheeler said.
It contains the most finely choreographed online surprise Ive experienced, as well.
Still, my favorite interactive events of the last many months have been Seven Daughters of Eve Thtr.
Co.smonthly gatherings,each one a contemporary religious service for a strange new religion, Fem-Animism.
And then at the end of each, the congregation gathers.
The chime works as it does in other religious services it calls our attention both inward and outward.
Looking calmly at all those faces as it sounds, you hear its healing message.
Dont worry about later, it says.It is now, it is now, it is now.
