Nikolas Weir is an international theater artist and advocate for the blind. He worked in communities across the globe before he moved to Albuquerque. He hopes to create a theater for the blind in the Southwest.
Daily Lobo: You’re a major proponent for this movement in the arts — theater for the blind. Tell me, how does it work?
Nikolas Weir: It’s communicating through something above text. Traditional audiences go to the theater; we see, we hear, we take in our surroundings. What is beautiful about the theater is it takes active listening on the audience’s part. When I first began my work in theater for the blind I kept saying to myself, “I go into a theater. I close my eyes. I’m feeling something. What is that?” I began to watch performances with my eyes closed. Our goal is to create a theater that involves all the senses: dramas that have sound, movement — movement that can be felt by the audience — taste and smell.
DL: Taste and smell?
NW: Yes, absolutely. How you can incorporate those elements which are usually overlooked in the theater? Releasing scents, unleashing rhythms — it’s all very ancient in tradition but innovative in how we relate it to a modern audience, specifically a blind audience.
DL: Can you describe a piece of theater for the blind?
NW: We do a show called “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett. We include all the design elements you might see in a typical production, but we heighten the experience beyond the text. We do this by creating a constant soundscape that suggests mood and tone, one that has a dialogue of its own, even releasing certain scents into the audience. A friend of mine once called my shows “scratch and sniffs” (laughs), but it is all very specific.
DL: Where have you been working primarily?
NW: Mostly in Europe, as we’ve gotten our funding primarily in Eastern European countries where theater has a more deeply embedded tradition. But my hope is to begin exploring theater for the blind in many communities, like here in Albuquerque.
DL: This seems like such a large project. What drives you?
NW: It was seeing the work of some of these innovators (in Eastern Europe) and understanding the significance of their work in a way I could articulate. I had a friend in high school. His mother was blind, but she always came to the performances. She always enjoyed the performances, I mean, to hear her son like that in the presence of others. I’m not saying I wake up every morning to vindicate her (laughs) but I do believe the power in theater is the ability to have a dialogue with the minority by inviting the majority.
