Urban Panorama: Hopscotch Opera falls between temporary theater and scenic design. Performances were comprised of parallel series of chapters, conceived as a non-linear set of scenes that took place simultaneously in moving limousines and locations scattered throughout the city of Los Angeles. The Urban Panorama, the focal point of the production, served as a temporary multimedia theater featuring live broadcasts of the distributed performances throughout the day and hosting the opera’s finale.

Constructed in the southwest portion of SCI-Arc’s parking lot, the theater featured live streams of distributed performances throughout the day and a live performance of the opera’s finale. Given this, the Panorama needed to house 24 screens, 300 audience members equipped with multi-channel receivers and headphones, and — during the finale of each performance — a succession of limousines that entered the pavilion, collapsing the distance between the real and virtual performances. Notably, the Panorama was open to the public for each performance, allowing anyone to access this cultural experience free of charge, not only those who had purchased tickets for the intimate performances in the limos.

The open-air, clad frame creates an interior within the city from a composite of multiple sites visited throughout the performances. Like the Thorne Miniature Rooms, it is an interior that branches into alternate interiors: the set of urban rooms gathered in the walls of the pavilion. The theater becomes a large-scale apparatus, calibrated to collapse the distance between in situ and remote performances. The layers of screen and frames exist in great separation, pulled apart and turned to the electronic devices with which they interact, with an even greater number of layers involved. Lycra, LCDs, and cell phones held by audience members to record the live stream operate as screens. The proscenium frame is variably recast as the wood framing, device frames, the map indicating linear routes, and the city of Los Angeles itself.

The two traffic lanes for the limos intersect the concentric structure and disrupt its centrality. The wood structural frame shapes an irregular exterior surface that shifts between concave and convex conic geometry, designed to shape the external site along its periphery. This frame was clad on its exterior with recycled vinyl billboards, notable detritus of car culture in Los Angeles, and lycra stretched across the interior cylinder. The cavity between these two layers of cladding and wood framing provided backstage space for AV technicians, videographer oversight, and significant amounts of cable and electrical equipment. The interior, panoramic view of performances allowed the audience to experience a rarely realized simultaneity of life across Los Angeles.

Location: Los Angeles, California
Schedule: 2015

Director: Yuval Sharon
Production Company: Hopscotch Opera, The Industry
Design: Constance Vale with Emmett Zeifman

Size: 100’ x 100’ x 16’h
Media: recycled billboards, wood, metal