# ll-event-lab-rationale-v1

copied from the eventLab repo

## roots in theatre

the first task will be to explain eventLab. It has had many names over the years.

theatreLab.
studioLab.
performanceLab.
happeningLab.
interactionLab.
activityLab.
teachingLab.

It kindof started because of great collaborations between the Bok Center and various folks from the ART.

And the sense that the typical way of thinking about theatre skills in the classroom focuses
1. exlusively on the performance skills of the teacher, and
2. mainly on the classroom as theatre with a proscenium that frames the performance and separates it pretty radically from the the audience/students.

We started asking two types of questions:

1. what if we started thinking of much more unconventional modes of theatre, like Diane Paulus's immersive *Sleep No More* (which had just come out as theatreLab launched for the first time)? and
2. what if we limited ourselves not just to thinking about the "act" of teaching as analogous to the work of the actor, but also involved ALL of the elements of theatre, from the research and development of the dramaturge to the craft of the playwright to the composer of the musical score to the director and her gift of guiding an ensemble to the lighting director to the set designers to the stagehands to the workers who stock and staff the giftshop?

So the goals here are big :)

## from theatre to event

Now we aren't necessarily suggesting that each and every event at the LL needs to "read" as theatre to the visitors. It's more that we want to transform and transfigure the everyday, breathing more life into it by deploying the moves of theatre.

But as time has passed, the word "theatre" has come to seem a bit limiting. It's still great if people get all of the above, but at times it has made more sense to think of ourselves as "event-designers"--like [these people](https://momentfactory.com/home). We've also developed expertise in technical skills and swag-production that are deployed in an array of live events ranging from rock concerts to weddings to conventions. So moving from the word "theatre" to "event" feels right this year.

In any case..

...at the end of the day, we want a core group of people to

1. understand the creative potential of the LL Studio's machinery
2. be masterful teachers of the things we need to teach
3. design and facilitate singular experiences for visitors to the learning lab

So like one needs to be a little bit Wizard of Oz with one's abilities to construct and deploy a magical machine


But then also a little like Beyonce at the Superbowl


In this lab, we're going to design learning experiences that feel like EVENTS.

...like the (Beyonce) Superbowl
...or New Year's Eve
...or a Taylor Swift concert you drove 4hrs for
...or a Broadway show
...or your birthday
...or a wedding
...or the time the cool barista you kinda liked got your coffee just right and drew a heart on the cup
...or a trip to Vegas or South Beach
...or that time you played Magick the Gathering one last time with your 12th-grade friends in the summer before college, in the playground behind the middle school, where you played past 2am, and cried together, and didn't want it to end.

Not all of learning has to feel like this. Not all of life has to feel like this.

But we're just one little lab in the LL, and the LL is just one little place helping out teaching.

So it doesn't hurt to have this one place focus for one little year on just how big events can feel.

TLDR:
...in this little lab
...in the this little LL
...we are going to think as big as we can about what learning experiences (and lived experiences) can be.

And we won't sit around waiting for them to happen.

We'll design them.

And then bring it them into the world for our users.

## don't forget the interaction

But while we are leaning in to the event-ness of events this year, we don't want to forget that our events are learning events, and the interactive nature of the theatre we put on needs to remain in focus.

...etc