Staying Alive, or Live Art in Odd Places
Live art is still here, and as Shelley understood two centuries ago, it will remain alive for as long as we do.
Category Archives: Essays
This Box Tickles Fascists: On Brandon Woolf’s THE CONSOLE
Along with the liveness of unmediated human presence, THE CONSOLE manages to be zeitgeisty, equal parts response to Covid isolation and election anxiety, in a way that isn’t instructive. It feels vital, earnest, and all the more critically alive for its irreverence.
Ann Liv Young’s Home Theater
Want to take out your phone and text? Please, I dare you, and I hope I’m there to see what happens. Maybe Young will want to take a selfie, or share your photos, or throw your phone out the window. Anything could happen.
Ellen Cornfield and Brian McCormick in Conversation
They saw, “formalism with flair, and flights of fancy. Quirky, rhythmic, gestural phrases woven into broadly abstract works with exciting choreography. Cute moments that hint at a story.”
Terrence O’Brien in the studio
“I’ll just put my bias on the table.” What is the impact of the work? “Let’s turn over the rock and see what’s under there.” Terry says.
Hadar Ahuvia and Tatyana Tenenbaum in conversation
There is a general consensus that this moment can’t restore power to a people who aren’t in the room. But perhaps it can deflate the confidence of a narrative that props up those in power?
The Intimate Process of DUET-ED
It shook me, as the kids say. And I see a lot. And experience a lot. And I felt shook.
No Worries / No War Zone: Theater of the Chill in Ben Gassman’s Independent Study
What does it do to the modernist play, the living room drama, I wonder, when there is no living room, when there’s no home at all? Where does the play go?
Athletic Kinesthetic Action On Stage
Their movement allows them to take up all the space, filling the stage all the way to the frame.
Crocodile Tears: The Problem of Empathetic Art
What controversies like Robert Lepage’s “SLĀV” reveal about the shortcomings of art practices
Queering Marriage
Editor’s Note: QUEERING MARRIAGE is the concluding essay documenting the long-table process around Kyoung’s Pacific Beat’s production of PILLOWTALK at the Tank. You can read about the previous conversations here and here. I have the privilege of sharing out PILLOWTALK’s third, and final long-table, addressing
My Experience Working On AMERICA IS HARD TO SEE
Every story needs to be considered individually for us to have any chance at finding something that looks like justice.