Inside the Box at Adirondack Theatre Festival is outside the box thinking
GLENS FALLS, N.Y. » “I see this pandemic as an opportunity. It is a chance to innovate and grow the art form.”
So says Chad Rabinovitz, the Producing-Artistic Director of Adirondack Theatre Festival in Glens Falls, as he describes the company’s new innovative alternative to producing live theater. The concept is called, “In the Box Entertainment,” and offers an interactive evening for a family or group to spend at home.
It is a series of six monthly programs, which can be bought as a series or individually. Just before the scheduled running date a box is delivered to your home containing a number of items that keep you involved with the digital program being offered on the device of your choice. They are designed not only to keep you involved, but to add to the theatricality of the event.
And some are just clever. My favorite cute gimmick is included in the cruise package. Of course, the shipboard entertainment will be fun, but the idea of including a towel with instructions on how to make bed animal ornaments is a great touch.
Rabinovitz not only runs Adirondack Theatre Festival, he is also the Producing Artistic Director of the Bloomington Playwrights Company in Bloomington, Indiana, another organization devoted to new work. He is the only person in the country to lead two theater companies, both of which are devoted to new work.
He insists the most important thing that he’s learned in his career working with new material is that the key to drawing an audience to unfamiliar titles is that the experience is almost as important as is the product. Rabinovitz always ends his curtain speech at the Wood Theatre reminding his audience that what they are in a Box” on February 9-20. experiencing is unique to However, Rabinovitz inthem and not happening sists that the content is anywhere else in the world. more than a magic show, a
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