Four highly physical performers dance around the stage and create lively scenes with simple materials and transitions in Noted at Assembly Roxy Upstairs. The show might be at 10:15 AM, but you will want to set an alarm and get an extra coffee so you don’t miss it.
Noted is full of visuals, dance, and big facial expressions. This is the charm of the show, watching the ensemble of Peter Betcher, Katie Kohler (both co-producers The BackPack), Alec Silver, and Alley Scott (of the co-producers Dutch Kills Theater) use over 400 hand-drawn images along with a space helmet, wheeled furniture rollers, glitter, and many types of animations to produce short scenes enjoyable for all ages.
Especially fascinating for me, as a multimedia theatre nerd, are the range of animations projected on the back screen. There’s opening credits for each of the four cast members, with some animations drawn over their scenes to visually set up much of how the rest of the show works. There’s also a camera pointed down toward the stage, which allows the cast to livestream a top-down perspective on their work onto that back screen and yes, if you’re reminded of Hollywood’s fascination with filming synchronised swimmers from above in 1960s musicals, Noted features some synchronised swimming.
Most fascinating were the semi-livestreamed scenes: one cast member began recording from that camera, projecting onto the screen at a slight delay from the action occurring onstage (this section is titled ‘Jetlagged’). This allows the audience to watch the scramble to make the scenes onstage, then view the final filmed product about 30 seconds later. This reminds me a little of Katie Mitchell’s live cinema work. While Mitchell essentially livestreamed from film cameras onto a back screen, the audience could visually bounce between the scenes being filmed by a film crew live onstage and watch the cinematography on a screen. It feels slightly illicit to see this level of behind-the-scenes work, which is part of the appeal of the choreography. While Noted visually diverges from Mitchell’s live cinema productions, there is a similar sense of getting a sneak peek into the creative process, and then the joy of watching the outcome.
There’s always a lot going on onstage in Noted at Assembly Roxy Upstairs, so you may even want to go two or three times to make sure you see everything.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
