Off Sites: Contemporary Performance beyond Site-Specific

214 Pages·2018·22.384 MB·English

by  Bertie Ferdman

OFF
SITES
Contemporary
Performance
beyond
Site-Specific
Bertie Ferdman
A Series from
Southern
Illinois
University
Press
scott
magelssen
Series Editor

Bertie Ferdman
Off
Contemporary
Performance
Sites
beyond
Site-Specific
Southern Illinois University Press / Carbondale
Southern Illinois University Press
www.siupress.com
Copyright © 2018 by the Board of Trustees,
Southern Illinois University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 4 3 2 1
Cover illustration: building used for Dominic Huber’s Casa /
Prime Time, as part of the festival Ciudades Paralelas (Parallel
Cities) in Buenos Aires, 2010. Courtesy of Lola Arias.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ferdman, Bertie author.
Title: Off sites : contemporary performance beyond site-specific
/ Bertie Ferdman.
Description: Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press,
2018. | Series: Theater in the Americas | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017050729 | ISBN 9780809334704 (paperback)
| ISBN 9780809334711 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Site-specific theater—United States. | Site-specific
theater—Latin America. | BISAC: performing arts / Theater /
History & Criticism. | performing arts / Theater / General.
Classification: LCC PN2081.S58 F47 2018 | DDC 792.02/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017050729
Printed on recycled paper.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
1. Off Sites: A New Journey through Other Spaces 1
2. Disciplinary Sites: Situating Theatre 29
3. Spectator Sites: Artistic Intervention and the Unintended
Audience 57
4. Temporal Sites: Moving Site, Moving Time 82
5. Urban Sites: Landmark Performance 106
Epilogue 134
Notes 141
Bibliography 169
Index 185

Illustrations
The Quiet Volume, September 2010 2
The Quiet Volume 3
“Molalla in a Barn” from On the Table, 2010 16
“Portland in an Old Church” from On the Table, 2010 16
Video still of Room Service 20
Richard Maxwell’s Showcase 21
Dominic Huber’s Hotel Savoy 22
Lola Arias’s Hotel Maids, 2010 23
David Levine’s Cruel Intentions, 2015 36
Actors at Work, 2005 40
Bauerntheater, 2007 41
David Levine’s Habit, 2012 43
Habit 43
El Chaco en Kassel, 2012 67
Faivovich & Goldberg with El Chaco, November 3, 2011 68
Lola Arias’s Mi Vida Después 73
Mi Vida Después 74
Screenshot of Vanina Falco 77
Motorcade arriving in RFK in EKY, September 2004 95
Actors and Peter Edelman in RFK in EKY, September 2004 95
Motorcade on a strip mine in RFK in EKY, September 2004 97
Various screens in Dream of the Red Chamber 101
Jeff Stark’s Dreary Coast, 2014 107
Dreary Coast 108
Thieves Theatre’s teepee, 1991 118
Thieves Theatre’s teepee 119
vii
Reza Abdoh’s Father Was a Peculiar Man 121
Washington and Little West Twelfth Streets, 1985 123
Washington and Little West Twelfth Streets, 2013 123
Agora performance, 2005 126
Agora 126
McCarren Park Pool 127
Roundtable performance for Aaron Landsman’s Perfect City,
2016 132
viii illustrations
Acknowledgments
I am grateful for all the artists who took the time to speak with me, read
excerpts of the manuscript, exchanged emails, or allowed me to include
images of their work. Thanks to Gülgün Kayim, Nicolás Goldberg, Erika
Latta, David Levine, Marsha Ginsberg, Ant Hampton, Noémie Lafrance,
Lola Arias, Gabriele Schafer, Nick Fracaro, Jeff Stark, Michael Rohd, Aaron
Landsman, Karin Holmström, Mary Ellen Strom, Juliana Francis-Kelly,
Anne Hamburger, Adam Soch, Jim Findlay, Christina Campanella, Okwui
Okpokwasili, New York City Players, Gob Squad Arts Collective, LAPD,
Henriëtte Brouwers, Dominic Huber, Margaret Morton, and Brian Rose.
This book has developed over the course of many years, and I am thank-
ful for the feedback I have received from peer scholars through multiple
ASTR Working Groups (Time, Sixties, Public Sphere), as well as IFTR’s
Architecture Working group, in particular, Andrew Filmer and Juliet Ruf-
ford for welcoming me and providing feedback on early versions of what
eventually became chapter 4. I am especially grateful for the generous ex-
change with friends and colleagues who read portions of the manuscript
and discussed particular chapters with me: Peter Eckersall, Jovana Stokic,
Daphnie Sicre, and Jill Samuels.
Thank you to Frank Hentschker and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
for providing a space to bring artists and hold public forums and symposia
that featured many of the artists I discuss in this book. A special thank you
to Mariellen Sanford, for her editorial prowess, guidance, and invaluable
feedback. I am also indebted to Scott Magelssen, who saw the potential for
a book in a meager twenty pages, and encouraged me to propose a book
for this series. I am thankful for his continued generosity, encouragement,
and feedback throughout the manuscript’s various iterations.
Thank you as well to all my colleagues at Borough of Manhattan Commu-
nity College (BMCC) for their support throughout the years. I was privileged
to have received numerous PSC-CUNY grants and BMCC’s Provost Funds
to support my research, as well as a Faculty Publication Fellowship, which
ix