🏛️Building a Temple in a Movie Theatre: Performing The Oracle in Manila
Author: Nisha Chao Instagram Photo: Guts Improv
Let's Connect: nisha0107@gmail.com
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Sometimes, what happens in the theatre feels like real magic.
One day at the Manila Improv Festival, I stepped onto a stage designed for fast-paced comedy alongside improvisers from India, Singapore, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the US. Together, we created a ritual.
It was the only time this group would ever perform together.
It was also the only performance of The Oracle.
And The Oracle is no ordinary show.
There are no punchlines. No central characters clashing in conflict.
Instead, it offers the audience an invitation:
Bring us your real questions—the ones you carry deep inside—and we will take them into the temple and listen for the oracle’s reply.
A Theatrical Ritual of Asking
The Oracle is an improv format created by Jonathan Pitts, a director from Chicago. Inspired by the rituals of the ancient Oracle of Delphi, the performance blends music, poetry, movement, symbolism, storytelling, and dramatic scenes to explore the audience’s questions.
Onstage, we become something like ancient priests. One of us reads a question written by the audience. Then, as oracles of Delphi, we respond through improvised expressions—sometimes a poem, sometimes a wordless scene, sometimes a story woven with music.
From each question, we build a ritual. And in return, the audience receives something beyond explanation.
Not necessarily an answer—but a kind of guidance.
What Can We Change? The Illusion.
But things didn’t go quite as expected.
We didn’t see the performance space until the day before. It was a stage built to host over 30 high-energy improv teams—complete with large speakers, colorful backdrops, and bright lights.
It was great for comedy.
But not for mystery. Not for sacred silence.
We considered many possibilities:
Could we change venues?
Could we switch time slots?
Could we remove the equipment?
After much discussion, we made only minimal adjustments: dimmed the lights, moved a few speakers.
The rest was up to us—this group of performers who had only met two days ago.
<The Oracle> at Manila Improv Festival 2023
We Believed—And Invited the Audience to Believe
We used improvisation. We used rituals. We trusted each other.
And we turned a movie theatre into a temple.
We believed in the temple’s presence.
And we invited the audience to believe too.
During the performance, I truly felt we were blessed—not by props or costumes, but by the power of shared belief among strangers.
That Day, I Believed in Theatre’s Magic Again
The Oracle wasn’t just a show. It was a sacred experiment we co-created.
It reminded me:
What is acting?
It is being fully present in a fictional, sacred world.
What is the connection?
It is sensing one another, even without words.
These are the moments I often encounter in improvisation.
And that day, in a movie theatre in Manila, we summoned them again.
#TheOracle #ImprovTheatre #ManilaImprovFestival #Delphi #Improvisation #RitualTheatre #JonathanPitts #TaiwanImprov #TransnationalPerformance #TheatreAndMyth #ImprovisedRitual
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