What are the characters in Chekhov's play The Seagull doing when they are "off stage"? This is the question addressed by hyperdrama, a recent environmental theater form that explodes conventional drama into a branching narrative in which all characters are in the performance space at all times. Into this beehive of simultaneous action, the audience is dropped like invisible voyeurs who may wander through the play as they like.
Charles Deemer is the editor of Oregon Literary Review and the artistic director of Small Screen Video.
His book Seven Plays was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. His novel Dead Body In A Small Room was a finalist for Foreword Magazine's Mystery of the Year award. Three of his stories were selected to the Roll of Honor in Best American Short Stories. His play "Famililly" won the 1997 Crossing Borders international new play competition.
His other books include Kerouac's Scroll (novel), Love At Ground Zero (novel), Movies They Should Have Made (screenplays), The Man Who Shot Elvis and Other Stories and In My Old Age (poems).
Deemer recently began making digital films. His DVDs include Three Short Digital Films, Deconstructing Sally and The Farewell Wake.
Deemer teaches screenwriting at Portland State University.
