Archives 1994-95

Faculty & Graduate Student Performance Hour

September

To kick-off our third season, enough faculty ventured onto the boards to warrant the noted title. Among others, Andrew King performed Audens "In Memory of W. B. Yeats" and Mary Frances HopKins, an excerpt from Lee Smiths Cake Walk. Graduate students included Gretchen Stein in a performance art piece titled "Lipstick, Lace, and Labor," and Sharon Croft in an embodied installation based on Dutch Interior by Pieter de Hooch.

Beauty and the Feast: A Performance about Women, Eating & Food

Directed by Leigh Anne Howard
November 17 & 18

By means of Augusto Boals collaborative practices, journal-writing, and interviews, Howard and her cast of LSU women met for six months to explore their relationship to gender body issues. One result was Beauty and the Feast, which consisted of personal narratives, dramatic skits, pop culture parodies, and body image pieces. The project also served as the basis for Howards PhD research and writing.

2040 Performance Hour

December 6

Our talented and creative undergraduate students claimed the spotlight in an evening that featured their work and, so too, the work of their instructors in the introductory course.

Self-Help

Adapted & performed by Rachel Stewart
February 3 & 4

In a collage of three Lorrie Moore stories, Stewart investigated her relationship to female agency and textuality as Moore develops them in "How to be an Other Woman," "How to Talk to Your Mother (Notes)," and "How to Become a Writer." A lively performance of diverse characters, Stewart played all parts save those of "Bob" and the "Roommate" who appeared on stage as cardboard cutouts.

The Body in Performance and Culture

Compiled & directed by Ruth Laurion Bowman
February 22 & 23

Drawing on pieces developed by students in the course "Body, Culture, Performance," Bowman and the cast offered a range of perspectives on how we experience and perform our bodies. Illustrative pieces were "Panopticon," "Mind Your Manners A Game Show," "S/he Who Consumes Body Texts," "Deal-A-Meal with Richard Simmons," "The Social Cannibal," "Erasure," and "Up On & Against Mapplethorpe" based on the photograph, Thomas in a Circle.

I Talking: or, the Emperor Wears Clothes

Adapted & directed by Ruth Laurion Bowman
April 20-22

A critical investigation of the agencies and aims of personal narrative in formal public performance, such as in TV talk and news shows and live stage events. In the first half, the cast parodied the Truth claims of monologic self expression while, in the second half, they applied Gregory Ulmers mystory model in pieces about the self as enciphered through other subjects, materials, and voices.

Poetry in Motion

Directed by Iresha Dillon
April 27

Having completed her MA degree at LSU on the benefits of using performance in English courses in largely African American high schools Dillon proceeded to apply her research at Scotlandville Magnet High School where she organized and directed a group of students called The Performing Poets. The show the group brought to the Black Box consisted of a brilliant array of African American poetry, song, dance, and stylized movement.

2040 Performance Madness

May 3

Always surprising, our students in the introductory course offer a madcap night of poetry, prose, image, and compiled performances.