Hidden Stories: Get impossibly close to locals
If you only knew what was going on here…
Discoveries most remembered by lovers of travel are those that involve people. Locals. New faces. No surprise.
Arriving in a new city, you give yourself a few days to settle in, see the ‘must sees’ and then what? You wander. Belly too full to follow up on yet another food recommendation, you inevitably find yourself meandering through the city center. Simply taking a moment to step outside your world of neverending logistics to watch the passersby. Part of growing closer to a culture is knowing the people. Learning the differences and similarities. To discover these, you observe the details. Digging a little deeper into the details you see, you question the locale and its people even more.
I had similar thoughts recently in Mexico City as I stopped for a while at Zócalo.
The focused, brisk-walking businessman seems well put together, but what does his bedroom look like? Neat as a pin or careless disarray? What is he faking?
The solemn, quiet thirtysomething barely trudging along. Why so sad: recent miscarriage? Plans to leave her lover? Opiod addict?
The mature woman struggling to push her grocery-filled cart. How many hours will be spent cooking a meal that her family will cancel last minute as they are “too busy”? Old world meets new as the young ones throw away the past.
The young man typing away furiously at his phone, laughing, headphones in. What’s so funny? Who are you talking to? Are you a powerful influencer and we don’t even know?
People are fascinating to look at and even more when get a peep into their thoughts.
A recent performance in Brooklyn this October lets you in on these personal secrets of strangers, albeit actors, performing an immersive theater concept. Traveling briskly among crowded public places, (secret) members of France’s Begat Theater lets you hear the intimate, provocative thoughts of passersby.
Attached to your borrowed device was an envelope. This is your only clue. Go find it.
Hidden Stories was not well known in media and marketing, perhaps on purpose. You signed up from a link on DWNTWNBRKLYN. The day before the “performance”, registered attendees received an email with a meeting point. “An agent will find you” is all you know. Once at “the red sculpture in front of Blg 6”, those “agents” find you. You are moved to a table full of headphones and iPod-like devices. You then receive your setup. Each iPod has an envelope attached with an illustration of a random object—such as a suitcase, ballpoint pen, an orange—and a picture of a nearby destination.
The only instructions: look for something orange. Do not touch it. Only follow it.
Once you’ve found the noted location, you search around for something orange. A sign? Shopping bag? Maybe the construction site’s plastic fencing? Nothing is coming out to you. You’re lost, wondering what kind of experience is this and how dumb am I that I cannot find the “orange”. After you’ve looked around high and low and see nothing, you spin around and see a simple orange sitting there in the open. A woman picks it up. Huh. Is that the next step? Do I follow her or is this just a lady with an orange? Your instructions said to follow it but never touch it. Just then, interrupting your self-discussion, a voice begins in your headphones. This voice could match this lady you’ve just found. She talks softly, with a sadness. A melancholy sound as she narrates her thoughts. Today is her birthday. She must go home to make the perfect cake to reluctantly go through the motions to celebrate her own day. She threw the last cake attempt in the garbage because it wasn’t good enough; it didn’t look like the one in the picture. You follow her stop-and-go pace while she unloads her struggles of relatable intense anxieties—banal and hopeless.
During a busy lunch hour traveling from Jay Street Metrotech to Ashland Place near Fort Greene, you’ll follow four protagonists as they “accidentally” cross paths. In each instance, the passing of the orange is totally natural. A distracted businessman runs into this woman, helping to pick up a dropped pile of belongings. As she departs, he is left with this orange in his hand. Huh. Follow the orange are the instructions. The lady slips into the crowd and you are now hearing thoughts of the businessman. His orange is stolen by a homeless man determined to die soon. The woman coming to his aide is a waitress who was dumped that morning. Your reward for sticking with this peculiar experience is a chance to slip into the heads of people just like you. Delve into their deepest secrets, discovering four separate yet parallel stories. Below are scenes from the first Brooklyn performance. Sponsored by Downtown Brooklyn.
“Rather than scrounging up a chat with a barfly who may (or may not) speak English, engage with a local in the most personal and voyeuristic way. In their head.”
SCENE 1
Depressed, overachieving, working mother of two is stuck in a rut and anguishes over what to do with an hour of unscheduled time alone. It’s her birthday. She’s going home for her second cakebaking attempt—the first wasn’t good enough.
SCENE 2
Birthday woman bumps into well-dressed visitor new to the city. Drops her bags. The man helps. She forgets her orange. Breathing in the city’s energy, this new character’s ultimate goal is to find some love for the night.
SCENE 3
After swiping the orange from the distracted businessman, this disheveled lonely soul is rescued by Brooklyn dogooders. He wanders the streets without a purpose: wonders which stranger will be the one to find him when dies.
SCENE 4
While standing around on her break, a kind, plain woman is kind enough to aide this weak, elder gentleman. Holding his belongings while he gathers himself, she is left with the orange. She returns to the bar where she works: this server silently questions her lover’s indifference. Is she unlovable? Fulfilling bar patrons’ requests may be the only way she’ll be loved.
and through an entrepreneurial lens….
Immersive theater and this level of experiential creativity excites me! No stage needed, adaptive script, translated into any language, little financial investment needed. I can see this experience work for any city, any age and any language. Begat Theater pulls it off well—let’s expand beyond NYC, Portland, SF and France! Hear from the locals illuminating their city’s history, culture, current state of economics. Given the only language you need to hear is pre-recorded, the words easily translate to your native language. Follow the actors as they whisk you through the Turkish Bazaar; be enveloped by the spray from Jet d’Eau in Geneva; run your hand along the lovers’ padlocks on the Makartsteg “Love Locks” Footbridge in Salzburg.
The unexpected characters are thrilling. What a way to build a brand for a tour company—using the element of surprise! PR will come easily. Travel providers and inspirers to can integrate so much with this art piece. Customize the concept and produce your own illustrative version around a current popular theme; economics, gender equality, urbanization. The startup costs are small: it’s all in the creative. Actors, creatives, producers should make a healthy percentage of each performance; marketing is the machine needed to make it blossom. Collaborate with talented, serious theater professionals from afar and use off-the-shelf software to manage. Sign me up! Travel startups and legends alike, make a statement. Introduce your clients to a higher, more intimate level of engagement. Show that city off (and turn it on)!
Our group follows an undercover actor posing as an elderly, lonely, somewhat reclusive man spending his last days, months, years(?) wandering the streets of Brooklyn.
The actors taking a bow after gathering at the end of the physical and emotional journey. Graciously thanking their trusting and well-traveled audience. I thank you for bringing us into your world(s).