I can't say I'm involved in drama/theatre to any formal extent,...
my research is
community-based, art-activism. The writers I listed there in
my, ah, effusive note, are influences more in my thinking about
art as a political tool, and as metaphors
for thinking outside of education-based models... I like the marxist influence,
but not the androcentric applications that organize the historical
aspects of Brecht, Williams, Benjamin... well, all of them, really,
lack a certain, um, feminist sensibility. So, it's *very* interesting to
re-construct materialist/feminist/queer ways for
thinking about/and implementing art as a tool for mediating the spaces
between the marginalized, and the dominant community.
as I say, I think there aspects of theatre in the "everyday" which are
much more intriguing than formal threatical productions.
You?
diane (UBC)
>= diane celia hodges wrote:
>>
>> Kerry - do you read/have you read any of Raymond Williams or
>> Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht,
>>
>> Antonio Gramsci, Mikhail Bakhtin, Andre Breton...?
>> (whoops. Is my marxism slipping?)
>>
>> Any influences from Laurie Anderson? Antonin Artaud (and his ever-so-special,
>> theatre of cruelty? [tsk! just like a man!]) ...[kidddiiinnggg]
>>
>> How about John Cage? Roland Barthes?
>> Have you ever read
>> Isadora Duncan's (1928)
>> "The
>> Dancer of the Future" from her book "The Art of Dance"?
>>
>> Can you tell me more *women/queer writers* in this area? because just listing
>> these names is making me feel like I've just been
>> [insert verb describing 'penetration' here].... but anyway, before I offend
>> anyone
>> again,
>>
>> I'm not trying to put you on the spot here - it seems to me that drama and
>> theatre
>>
>> offer powerful and compelling ways for thinking about the important questions
>> of identity as/in/ the "cultural" with/in the contexts of the "social" and
>> vicey-versa,
>> (as if they were distinct?)... rebel/guerrilla theeatre, and so on...
>>
>> Certainly theories of "performance" play well in terms of our
>> "everyday" interactions -
>>
>> the implications of the everyday use of the word "theatrics" when
>> describing someone (usually meaning "hysterical") -
>>
>> and
>> as an intervention, especially in forms of articulation
>> for marginalized/minority groups, I think drama and theatre are potent
>> tools...
>>
>> my own artisitic work tends to lean more towards the "theatre of
>>cruelty" model,
>> because I think that too much of theatre/drama is about complacency
>> in the guise of entertainment... you know,
>>
>> (for goddess's sake! don't make me THINK about anything!!!)
>>
>> or summat to that effect. I like to disturb folks, similar to Walter
>>Benjamin's
>> use of the "quotation" as a way for "interrupting" discourse (and maybe
>> you witnessed the effect of that recently here on xmca? ah. but I digress...)
>>
>> Brecht's work, too, influences
>> a lot of what appeals to me about theatre as a tool, although Brecht
>>certainly
>> has his problems (like, can u say self-centred misogynist alcoholic?)...
>>
>> anyway, I'd be so interested in hearing more about where you go with your
>> work... theatre and drama are. as far as I'm concerned, a veritable
>> sociocultural
>> toybox!!!!
>>
>> diane (is my enthusiasm showing?) ;-)
>>
>> ooh ooh ! how about Guy Debord? (chicks! we need more chick names!!!)