VIDEO: Audience Members Required To Use Their Phones Throughout Performances of ELEMENTS OF OZ

For centuries, audience participation in theatre has generally been limited to having actors coming into the house to interact with patrons or bringing a poor sucker on stage for some good-natured antics.

But this past weekend at New Jersey's Montclair State University, a theatre company called The Builders Association brought audience participation to an intriguingly high-tech level with their production of ELEMENTS OF OZ.

In part a commentary on how much of the world we see through our smartphones, audience member were required to download an app that provided them with images that enhanced the bare-bones live production they were viewing.

As stated in the company's website, "The production will tell the story of Oz by tracing some of the fanatical allegories which have been conjured since the book's publication. These interpretations have ranged from the idea of the Tin Man as America's unemployed industrial workers and the Scarecrow as the Midwest's confused famers; or the Wicked Witch's "poppies" as the drug trade; or the 1890's struggle between the Populist Silverite movement (the Munchkins) and the gold-driven bankers of the East (the Wicked Witch) and their battle over America's establishment of a monetary standard; or the longstanding urban myth that the Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon is actually a soundtrack for the movie of Oz."

Click here for more information on The Builders Association and a fascinating video about the making of the show.

Founded in 1994 and directed by Marianne Weems, The Builders Association is a New York-based performance and media company that creates original productions based on stories drawn from contemporary life. The company uses the richness of new and old tools to extend the boundaries of theater. Based on innovative collaborations, Builders' productions blend stage performance, text, video, sound, and architecture to tell stories about human experience in the 21st century. From BAM to Bogata, Singapore to Melbourne, Minneapolis and Los Angeles to Budapest, The Builders Association's OBIE award-winning shows have toured to major venues the world over.

The Builders have collaborated on twelve multi-media theater projects: MASTER BUILDER (1994), THE WHITE ALBUM (1995), IMPERIAL MOTEL (FAUST) (1996), JUMP CUT (FAUST) (1997), JET LAG (1998) with Diller + Scofidio, XTRAVAGANZA (2000), ALLADEEN (2003) with motiroti, AVANTI (2003), SUPER VISION (2005) with dbox, CONTINUOUS CITY (2008), HOUSE / DIVIDED (current) & SONTAG:REBORN (current). The Builders Association is currently one of the most active international touring experimental theater companies in America. Their work has also been presented at The Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2003, 2005, and 2008.

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