Downtown MediaLab Collaborates with

New Line Theatre and HotHouse Theatre Co.

on Agitprop Labor Plays

MediaARTS collaborated with HotHouse Theatre Co. and New Line Theatre in their rotating repertory productions of The Cradle Will Rock and It's All True, which were performed at the ArtLoft Theatre 1529 Washington Ave. in downtown St. Louis throughout the month of October.

MediaARTS, which operates a cutting-edge digital media MediaLab exhibit, is located at 1136 Washington, 3 blocks east of the ArtLoft Theatre. The lab which re-opened last August permits the public to watch media artists "spin" graphic art, still and moving video and computer images and footage from cameras on the street into a changing stream of digital art displayed on large video monitors. The lab operates live four nights a week.

The goal of MediaARTS is not only to present exciting new media works, but to invite the public into the process of their creation. It allows the public the opportunity to witness the creative choices the artist is making, and to see the technical inner workings of the software as it is processing the work, brings a whole new dimension to the concept of 'art' and to 'theater'.

HotHouse Theatre Co. and New Line Theatre's The Cradle Will Rock and It's All True are set in 1937 during the Great Depression, a time of labor unrest and censorship. The Cradle Will Rock, and It's All True are representative of "agitprop" theatre, a theatre for agitation and propaganda. The "agitprop" movement was a vibrant element of popular political theatre in the 1920s and 1930s. This style is sometime referred to as political street theatre. This unique collaboration allowed MediaARTS, HotHouse Theatre Co. and New Line Theatre to recreate street theater on Washington Avenue in this information, Internet Age.

This collaboration among MediaARTS, HotHouse Theatre Co. and New Line Theatre is recognition of the changes taking place as a result of the information revolution. The Internet is now becoming the primary vehicle for political protest and organization. Marginal, disenfranchised and threatened communities who once used the theater are now turning to the Internet, to organize, to spread information and tell their stories.

On October 19 & 20, 26 & 27, simultaneous with the presentation of the plays at the ArtLoft Theatre, and just three blocks down Washington Ave, digital media artists told a story similar to the stories that were being told in The Cradle Will Rock and It's All True, about the means of production, of labor organizations, and about injustice. At the media lab, the story was not told on a stage, or under a proscenium arch, but on a rear projection screen, on undulating canvasses and on monitor walls. These media artists/ storytellers, using current digital information technology, fashioned their stories into a digital quilt of images and text from the Internet. At the end of the play each nigh the actors invited the audience to walk with them the 3 blocks down Washington Ave to the MediaLab. At the Lab the actors, in their period costumes, joined with the MediaARTS's digital artists to continue telling the story. 

Guzzardo says that the other aspect of this collaboration, which is especially exciting, is that the Artloft Theater and the MediaLab are located in the City's former garment district. A district that for the first half of this century was the center of the American shoe industry, as well as the site of many other garment-related industries. Many workers were involved in industrial labor associations and labor conflict. Because The Cradle Will Rock, and It's All True are plays that involve labor history and labor unrest, this collaboration offered an opportunity to recover the district's history, and examine issues of sweeping historical significance.

For more information call MediaARTS at 314-231-8784 or e-mail curator Paul Gazzarado at zio11@mindspring.com.

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