IF YOU GOWhat: “Have a Seat.”When: 7:30 p.m. today, Dec. 9 and Dec. 16; 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10 and Dec. 17; 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11 and Dec. 18.Where: Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga, 1918 Union Ave. (St. Andrews Center).Admission: $10 adults, $8 students.Phone: 987-5141.Website: www.ensembletheatreofchattanooga.com.
Audience members and cast members will be on the same plane today when the Ensemble Theatre of Chattanooga closes out its 2011 season with the original, experimental production “Have a Seat.”
“The audience is experiencing it along with the actors,” said Christy Gallo, who is directing the show with John Thomas Cecil. “The entire theater is the stage … and the action takes place around the audience. We call it the opposite of theater in the round. We’re taking away that comfort zone” between stage and audience.
Part of the reason for taking away that comfort, she said, is the production’s theme of homelessness.
The production is a written collaborative effort among its five actors, with scenes improved during the rehearsal process, Gallo said. It also contains a monologue local writer Cody Maxwell penned for an earlier Ensemble Theatre play.