Since 2012, this series has explored LGBTQ performance in the 21st century, more particularly the ways in which contemporary queer performance is tied to past, present, and future explorations of queer identity. The series includes performers, scholars, and writers of diverse backgrounds and styles coming together to discuss their work in multiple formats, including roundtables, interviews, discussions, lectures, readings, and/or performances. Performances and discussions will track the legacy of queer performance onstage and off, querying the efficacy and vitality of live performance in the age of media-based and digitized communication. Co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.
Part 1: Nina Arsenault with J. Paul Halferty
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Part 2: Charles Busch with James Wilson
November 13, 2012 at 7:00pm
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Part 3: Carmelita Tropicana and Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé
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Part 4: Holly Hughes and Jill Dolan
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Part 5: Sex/Body/Self — Tim Miller with Jordan Schildcrout
A highly stimulating and opinionated rant and performance about identity, the culture wars, and queer strategies for the future. Internationally-acclaimed solo performer Tim Miller will perform excerpts from his body of work and speak on the role that performance plays in constellating identity. Known for his charged performances which take up the most challenging social texts of our time, Miller will share fierce and funny material and speak about how performance can be used to embolden communities and connect people. A Q&A will follow, moderated by theatre scholar Jordan Schildcrout.
Part 6: Graphic Lesbians — Lisa Kron and Moe Angelos with Sara Warner
Celebrated queer performance artists Lisa Kron and Moe Angelos join theater historian Sara Warner in a conversation about their collective pasts and present collaborations. As members of The Five Lesbian Brothers, an OBIE award-winning troupe of Sapphic satirists, Kron and Angelos make audiences squeal and squirm with their polymorphously perverse sex comedies rooted in the parodic inversion of genres, societal norms and theatrical conventions. Their independent projects (Kron’s 2.5 Minute Ride and Well) and artistic alliances (Angelos’ work with Ann Bogart and the Builders Association) reflect a sustained commitment to the aesthetics and politics of New York’s famed WOW Café, the crucible of lesbian performance, where they honed their craft. These culture workers will discuss their careers, comedic influences, and current endeavors, including Kron’s musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, Fun Home and Angelos’ holographic incarnation as Susan Sontag in the critically-acclaimed Sontag: Reborn.