Abolish the stage

'We abolish the stage and the auditorium and replace them by a single theatre of the action. A direct communication will be re-established between the spectator and the spectacle, between the actor and the spectator, from the fact that the spectator placed in the middle of the action is engulfed and physically affected by it.' - Antonin Artaud, The Theater and its Double (1938)

The new stage arrrives tomorrow. This will be the first year where a performance is not preceded by a week of blood, sweat and tears as mostly retired amateur dramatists lift, move and assemble a makeshift stage out of wood - wearing wallpaper and nails from previous shows. Am negotiating with the drama group about whether I can have their previous stage blocks. The stage blocks they have performed 20 years of plays upon. They want to get rid of them. They want to take them apart. I want to get rid of them for the group. I want to 'stage' the stage blocks. Arrange them as I find them in the Church on Rise Park Store Room in an empty theatre space. Put the offstage onstage and let the stage directions from previous productions play. Aural footprints or an oral archive of performances the stage blocks have seen. I want to take the stage blocks apart. To make the deconstruction the action. To abolish the stage.