HOW IT WORKS

Best Life is built for an intimate audience (30 for black boxes; scalable for larger performance spaces), with an additional special role to be filled by a local performer. This role is called The Recounter, and will be explained a little later in this document. After the audience members arrive, they are led to a room or space outside of the theatre. 

Here, they engage with three gentle pre-show activations:

1. They answer the question: Are you living your best life? Their answers are displayed on post-it notes, and accumulate throughout the run of the show.
   

2. They are assigned a machine card, which is given to them by Maiko. These will be selected prior to the show through an audience ‘casting’ process, matching each audience member with a particular machine.
   

3. They are invited to make an adornment, while thinking about this machine, and what it might do for them, if it does anything at all. The materials to make the adornments include local flora, both indigenous and introduced, as well as string and ribbon, etc. The adornment will be used later in the performance.

These pre-show activations take place in the 30 minutes before the show starts. When the audience is ready, they will be guided into the theatre by The Recounter. From this point onward, the audience experience is guided by a series of gentle invitations and instructions, delivered by voice over, live in the space by Maiko, and through instruction manuals placed at each machine. Through these different modes, the audience performs the show for each other and a larger narrative emerges, revealing the story of a suburban neighbourhood, and a family that did their best to make a life there. During the show, Maiko operates the lights, voice over parts and performs the show with the audience. A sound operator may be required. The length of the show, not including the pre-show activations, runs just over an hour. Best Life tours with 3 people on the road, including Maiko Yamamoto, a Technical Director/Operator and 1 Producer. The team works with the venue/presenter to arrange the local engagement elements.

The Recounter

This role offers a special opportunity to invite a known local performer/writer/personality to play a special part in the show. During the performance, The Recounter acts as a gentle guide for the audience, and witnesses the audience as they move through the piece, while filling in a ‘mad-libs’ style document revolving around each machine narrative that emerges. They then ‘perform’ the story of this particular audience, playing the role of a neighbourhood, back to them. Note: The Recounter arrives an hour prior to each performance to be onboarded into the show.