Offscript - If you can’t beat them ...

The relationship between theater and film is a two-way street, as long as that street happens to be Broadway. Movies have inspired hugely profitable stage musicals like The Lion King, The Producers and Hairspray, and matinee idols can be big draws to playhouses, but those kinds of shows benefit the biggest cities and the theaters with the deepest pockets.

Otherwise, film feeds on stage plays for raw material, both for cinematic adaptations like Driving Miss Daisy and TV and cable versions like HBO’s Angels in America, debuting in December. Movies make such lavish distractions that playhouses can’t really compete with them.

Rather than treat film as an enemy, PushPush Theater has allied itself with the medium through its collaborative projects called Dailies. Began in 1992 by playwright and PushPush artistic associate Rob Nixon, the Dailies projects team theater artists with local moviemakers (usually members of Atlanta’s small but numerous film collectives). PushPush holds Dailies projects about once a quarter, and frequently they involve some kind of stunt or exercise, with the finished product screened at the theater.

Dailies has so far resulted in short films but no theater pieces, although the film artists are inspiring the theater’s stagecraft. PushPush is exploring how to use video projection and movie-style sound design for its German Play Festival next spring.

Dailies recently embarked on its most ambitious project yet, with a goal of both a feature film and a full-length, five-act theatrical play. Both will be titled Exquisite Corpse and follow the “chain letter” creative approach, in which one person works on a portion, then passes it onto another, and so on.

Nixon wrote the first installment of the film, to be directed by David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry, David Moore and Frank Lopez. While loosely inspired by the beginning of the film, the play will be written independently by Iowa’s Mike Moran, Munich’s Tamara Ralis and Atlanta’s Eric McAffee, Karen Wurl and Jim Grimsley. Both begin with the line “The exquisite corpse drinks the new wine,” and Nixon says, rather cryptically, that both plots involve “people living at the edge of something cataclysmic, trying to decipher signs of what has happened to us.”

The film screens in repertory with the finished play, to be directed by Daniel Pettrow, in July. For a more immediate crash course in Dailies highlights, PushPush presents Dailies Dose, a retrospective of work from earlier installments, from Nov. 27-Dec. 6.Speaking of PushPush

The theater will soon relocate to the East Decatur Station development on the corner of College Avenue and New Street in Decatur. The 5,000-square-foot space will house a 100-seat theater, the same size as its current theater, located in a 1,200-square-foot space in the Floataway Building. The rest of the space will be devoted to offices and rehearsal space. The theater’s first full production in its new home will be Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real, opening Jan. 9, but PushPush hopes to officially inaugurate the space on New Year’s Eve.

Blue Play Special

There are pairs of words that inspire immediate revulsion. Malignant tumor. Weaponized anthrax. Dinner theater.

The latter term has been so stigmatized, and so vividly evokes rubber chicken and synthetic Neil Simon, it’s impossible to imagine “dinner theater” ever being rehabilitated. Which is unfortunate, because meals and spirits have become ubiquitous in Atlanta playhouse promotions. Nearly every theater has wine or food events (PushPush has “Pushy Wine Tastings”), from supper clubs to restaurant discounts with play tickets. It’s a concept tailor-made to Atlanta date nights, as the city’s long commutes may permit an evening at the theater or a restaurant, but not necessarily both.

Dinner-and-play combos have become so popular, it suggests that the dinner theater idea could use re-heating. I remember when Like Water for Chocolate was an art-house hit, and local restaurants served dishes from the film. Given the prevalence of plays that involve food cooked and eaten, a similar approach could work with theater. Horizon Theatre and Theatre in the Square’s Alley Stage practically specialize in those kind of shows, which can make audiences ravenous for, say, the Chinese dumplings in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.

A dedicated theater that stages “food plays” and afterward serves the meal might be a little ambitious. But theaters could partner with restaurants to serve, for instance, Skylight’s spaghetti dinner following weekend matinee shows. It’s a hook that should appeal to Atlantans, who may avoid plays, but always have to eat.

curt.holman@creativeloafing.com

Off Script is a biweekly column on the Atlanta theater scene.