On White Space

Yesterday, Polly Carl shared a link via twitter to a story that I loved, "White Space, Green Space: The Narrative of the City" Read it.

A couple parts got me thinking about the stage:

White space on the page is a breath, a break in the walls of gray text. Rather than the absence of content, white space gives meaning. It can propel the narrative forward, pause the narrative, open up a passage or a scene, invite the reader in. The reader enters the text through the white space and participates in the aesthetic process.

and

In the narrative of the city, the breath, the “respite from traffic and the sound of other voices” is in the green space. As a city resident, my imaginative act is to “alter my perception” and create a new definition of green space for Warren Park.

What is the stage version of white space? What takes the form of a breath for an audience member?

I wonder if 90 one-act formula tends to strip the stage of white space as it were? I don't know if jokes, while often tension releasing, are really white space. On the other hand, I think many musicals--especially those whose books are simply an excuse to get from song to song--are 90% whitespace. Also less than ideal.

I wonder if there's something we could rediscover from form of melodramas? Musical interludes etc. as white space?

I know, I'm supposed to be all, "melodramas, eww. They're terrible." But there is little terrible about the form. What is melodrama?  The word is borrowed from the French, mélodrame. Which in turn borrows from the greek melos, song--and the word for drama.  A melodrama is a play with songs.

Webster online has a pretty handy learners dictionary, for people learning English. It gives simple definitions of words. They have this for melodrama: "drama in which many exciting events happen and the characters have very strong or exaggerated emotions." That doesn't seem like a bad thing to me; exciting things, with strong emotions.

Most of what we tend to think is melodramatic, bad acting, shallow stock characters arent really the form, they're results of the historical era they lived in. But people loved them. They still do. I had a critic once tell me that August: Osage County was just a really tight melodrama, without the interludes. It wasn't meant to be an insult, either. he loved the show.

Either way, melodrama has plenty of whitespace. And often that whitespace is really enjoyable. Music, audiences openly reacting to characters onstage, etc. A lot of post-modern styled folks often use anachronistically random pop-songs, dance breaks etc, (read: fun) in a similar manner.

What do we have for white space in more mainstream theatres? The theatre that is seen by the most people? Have we pushed it aside in favor of an arbitrary running time? Does lack of white space make a work less enjoyable, as lack of green space makes a city less enjoyable? Are there other forms of white space I'm missing?

What do you think?