As part of the Performance Art Research Ljubljana (PARL) Residency, Molly Thomas, Samantha Johns, Brittany Williams, Ross Jakubsen, and I presented a work in progress showing of Can You Feel The Pull?
at Španski borci
www.spanskiborci.si/
Can You Feel The Pull? will be an ensemble-based, collaboratively-created, performance piece with two primary areas of exploration. One area of exploration is formal, and asks: “How do we as artists with theatre backgrounds draw on performance art sensibilities and practices, and experimental methods to intentionally fail at creating a performance event bound within the conventions of “theatre magic”? The second area of exploration is how we can wrestle the feminist concept/practice of witchcraft away from the patriarchal gender bias that has been historically built up against it? It may be one of the few universals that for patriarchy, every woman is demonized as a witch, and every witch is a bad witch ready to be drowned.
We worked on 8 distinct versions of 20 minute long pieces over 10 days. We decided to show a slight variation of one version that starts more or less like this:
B: Hi. I'm Brittany. For the last week we have attempted to do magic.
R: Hi. I'm Ross. We are unsure if we can do magic.
S: Hi. I'm Sam. We are unsure of what magic means to us. Or might mean to you.
M: Hi. I'm Molly. Our witchcraft mentor is a teenage girl.
S: Her name is Tupelo and she lives in Minneapolis.
M: Tupelo says magic is hard to control. You have to let it move through you.
S: Like a flock of birds.
B: Like a wave.
R: Like spicy food.
M: Tupelo also says that a witch knows 3 things. Where they are:
B: Here.
M: When they are:
R: Right now.
M: Who they are:
S: Sam
R: Ross
B: Brittany
M: Molly. We are unsure if we can do magic. Or if there is even any magic left to do. But will continue to try.
at Španski borci
www.spanskiborci.si/
Can You Feel The Pull? will be an ensemble-based, collaboratively-created, performance piece with two primary areas of exploration. One area of exploration is formal, and asks: “How do we as artists with theatre backgrounds draw on performance art sensibilities and practices, and experimental methods to intentionally fail at creating a performance event bound within the conventions of “theatre magic”? The second area of exploration is how we can wrestle the feminist concept/practice of witchcraft away from the patriarchal gender bias that has been historically built up against it? It may be one of the few universals that for patriarchy, every woman is demonized as a witch, and every witch is a bad witch ready to be drowned.
We worked on 8 distinct versions of 20 minute long pieces over 10 days. We decided to show a slight variation of one version that starts more or less like this:
B: Hi. I'm Brittany. For the last week we have attempted to do magic.
R: Hi. I'm Ross. We are unsure if we can do magic.
S: Hi. I'm Sam. We are unsure of what magic means to us. Or might mean to you.
M: Hi. I'm Molly. Our witchcraft mentor is a teenage girl.
S: Her name is Tupelo and she lives in Minneapolis.
M: Tupelo says magic is hard to control. You have to let it move through you.
S: Like a flock of birds.
B: Like a wave.
R: Like spicy food.
M: Tupelo also says that a witch knows 3 things. Where they are:
B: Here.
M: When they are:
R: Right now.
M: Who they are:
S: Sam
R: Ross
B: Brittany
M: Molly. We are unsure if we can do magic. Or if there is even any magic left to do. But will continue to try.