Non-Actor as Performer: Creating Distance Between Performance and Reality

Abstract

As interactive theater becomes more popular, two recent productions at Arizona State University took this trend to a new level by placing a non-actor on the stage to be integrated into the performance, watched by the rest of the audience. In Healing Wars, created by Liz Lerman and directed and choreographed by Keith Thompson, a non-actor was brought into the company to perform each night as the Vet. In Sojourn Theatre’s Don’t Go, co-directed by Michael Rohd and Nik Zaleski, four new non-actors were chosen for each show and integrated into the performance. The use of non-actor as performer was designed to create a distancing effect in each show between performance and reality, but the method of integration between non-actor and production was unique, resulting in radically different audience reactions.