Category: Free Essays

After reading and researching into Raymond William’s quotation, this essay will produce the main outlines of the naturalistic movement within Theatre and how important it is in modern day society. The main outlines discussed in this essay are the social and technological change after the Restoration period, what is the content of naturalistic plays, the audience’s response to naturalism and its future development and dominance within society today. At the end of the nineteenth centaury, naturalism became a revolt against previous conventions of theatre, and it strived to destroy everything the world thought was true; naturalism was the revolution of man. However, prior to this was both the Renaissance and Restoration periods; these both had a considerable impact on theatre. This essay will argue that without these generations of theatre, Naturalism could not of developed.

The Renaissance period held Elizabethan Theatre, which composed of the most famous playwright even today, William Shakespeare however considered to being Shakespeare’s superior was Christopher Marlowe who was another successful playwright within the sixteenth centaury. The early plays of this period were performed almost anywhere, mainly courtyards and Inns. During the end of the sixteenth century, performances eventually advanced into being presented in established Theatres, as we know them today; the most famous of these early buildings being the Globe:

“This entailed daytime performances without lights or a stage curtain and very few, if any, props, thought the actors were dressed in rich costumes. There were no scene changes in the modern sense and the action moved fluidly from one scene to the next without an apparent break.” (The Routledge history of literature in English: Britain and Ireland, 2001, p67)

This contrasts competently to the major outlines of the naturalism movement, without the technological change of lighting through the nineteenth century naturalistic theatre would not have been possible to convey on stage. Before gas lighting and the limelight, the only light used with indoor theatres was candlelight, however many performances were presented outdoors in the daylight. Using only candlelight indoors would make it impossible to portray naturalism on stage. Another clear difference to where theatrical naturalism progressed from Renaissance theatre is through scenery and props. The Elizabethan’s used as little props as possible and relied on backdrops to convey a sense of place, however naturalistic theatre moved from backdrops to three-dimensional scenery and highlighted props as being highly important to make the space look real and lived in:

“August Strindberg, in his preface to Miss Julie, complained of canvas walls that shook when doors were slammed, and painted pots and pans on the walls instead of real ones.” (The Cambridge guide to Theatre, 1995, p1096)

Thus suggesting that when the curtains opened to these detailed naturalistic sets Strindberg wanted a reaction to occur from the middle class audience as it reflects their homes; the use of canvas’ within naturalistic performances wouldn’t have given the audience anything to relate to.

Another major contribution to the movement of Naturalism is the role of women. During the Renaissance period, it was unheard of for a woman to perform professionally on stage alongside men; young adolescent men would perform women’s roles. Conversely, during the late seventeenth century, the beginning of the Restoration Period, Women began to act professionally in Theatres; without women performing on stage, naturalism could not have taken place.

Another contrast before naturalism, is the restoration’s Pantomime’s and Melodrama’s, these two genres are both established by stereotypical characters with exaggerated emotions. Pantomimes were hugely associated with cross-dressing and stock characters, singing songs and breaking down the fourth wall by talking to the audience. Melodramas were publicly taken more seriously although they to included stock characters and songs; naturalism advances away from these exaggerated performances and developed characters on stage. Characters were becoming more naturalistic, psychologically complex and were people the middle class audience could relate.

However, it was not only the transition through the Renaissance and Restoration period creating Naturalism, but the influence of science and scientists:

“Its origin owes much to Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, based in turn on his theory of natural selection. Darwin created context that made naturalism – with its emphasis upon theories of heredity and environment – a convincing way to explain the nature of reality for the late nineteenth century.” (The Cambridge companion to American realism and naturalism: Howells to London, 1995, P47)

Science explains human behaviour and this is why Darwin’s evolutionary theories are a big influence on Naturalism; his theories determine someone’s character through social environment and heredity. Sigmund Freud was also another influence of Naturalism; his studies excogitate human psychological behaviour and how humans function. Karl Marx also had an input to the movement; his studies were the economical and industrial analysis on society. Without these theories characters could not have developed in Naturalistic plays being written as well as performed.

Naturalism became an atheistic revolt against previous theatre conventions; plays and performances contrasted from Renaissance and Restoration where they were solely devout, to being irreligious in the late nineteenth century. Naturalism sought to abolish what society believed and changed the revolution of man, society and morals. The four acknowledged playwrights who determined and developed theatrical naturalism are Henrik Isben, Anton Chekhov, August Strindberg and Emile Zola (Who was also a well established novelist in naturalistic literacy). Constantin Stanislavski helped intensify and direct these plays so the audience would encounter lifelike productions on stage. These distinguished playwrights composed scripts would consist of particular attributes. The first feature of these plays this essay is going to elaborate on is the use of contemporary issues within these naturalistic pieces such as contraception, women’s rights, adultery, and sexual diseases, the key issue however is female identity within society. One clear example of this feature exists in Strindberg’s preface to Miss Julie where he outlines his ideas for his play:

“The passionate character of her mother; the upbringing misguidedly inflicted on her by her father; her own character; and the suggestive effect of her fiance upon her weak and degenerated brain.” (Miss Julie, 2006, Preface Ixxxix)

The main theme of this play is the degeneration of women, and throughout the play, we see the different beliefs Miss Julie’s parents brought upon her upbringing and how they have torn her apart to being psychologically distracted. Her mother who was a highly obsessive feminist believing in equality between men and women and opposingly her father who brought her upon his own beliefs that women and men are not equal, that women are lower than men. Through the influence of Sigmund Freud and Darwin, Strindberg had a high interest in human psychology and evolutionary history; the scientific research on humans is another clear feature within naturalistic plays. Two relevant psychological paths are relevant to Miss Julie that are relevant to when Strindberg wrote this play, hysteria and feminine masochism. Women throughout this movement were being represented in a much different manner than during Restoration period; women became considered as sexually assertive and independent. Miss Julie is clearly both sexually assertive and independent to a certain extent but she is psychologically preoccupied. With this, it is apparent to say that all naturalistic pieces of theatre include psychologically complex characters, which the actors themselves are required to understand. The actors performing naturalistic plays would have researched through subtext and the text to find out who their characters are and how they can run the character through their own emotions. Stanislavski had an acknowledged impact of directing the actors through the Stanislavski system whilst producing naturalistic plays:

“While he himself was often at pains to demonstrate that his system was not limited to naturalistic plays, Stanislavski’s theory and practice clearly articulated a response to the development of naturalism as a major movement in Western drama.” (The purpose of playing: modern acting theories in perspective, 2006, p37)

Gordon expresses that Stanislavski’s theories linked and worked better with naturalism, and through his methods, he helped to influence the naturalism movement.

Another feature of naturalistic theatre is the detail of sets, each of the playwrights set out to mirroring the bourgeoisie audience; as noted earlier on in the essay, the sets were to be three-dimensional without the use of painted backcloths. The directions for how the set is to be on each scene is outlined with as much detail as possible within the scripts:

“A large kitchen, the roof and side walls of which are concealed by drapes and borders. The rear wall rises at an angle from the left; on it, to the left are two shelves with utensils of copper, iron and pewter.” (Miss Julie, 2006, p3)

It is clear to see from the beginning of a very long detailed extract on the stage setting that everything has to be as it is written in the script. Strindberg would not have written such detailed descriptions of the scenery if he had no reason, and his reason was to represent and mirror the middle class audiences homes. He directly points to which materials should be used and how things are arranged on the stage; these props are meant to be there to make the life on stage as real as possible creating a tangible presence for the audience to watch.

The bourgeoisie audience were middle or merchant class people known for their ownership of capital and related culture; they benefited out of capitalism. Naturalistic plays sought to mirror the bourgeoisie’s lives and homes on stage; capitalism became scrutinized. These audiences contrasted highly to the classical audiences of the Renaissance and Restoration theatre, the audiences became silent, as conventionally they would be today; there was no more booing and hissing within the audiences. Another attribute to the social classes within theatrical naturalism was the lower working class and social outcasts becoming the protagonists thus moving away from the aristocrat protagonists of classical drama. This can be argued in Miss Julie, as there are two protagonists both from different social backgrounds, the two being Miss Julie who is an aristocrat and Jean who is a lower class servant; despite their social status’, they are both outcasts. When it comes to morality Jean is Julie’s superior as he is a man and she is a degenerated woman.

There is also a clear theme of family life; there was more emphasis on family than the wider society and characters were individualised and shown in their social and economical contexts. Miss Julie again clearly represents those naturalistic attributes and themes:

“There have been many family tragedies, and Julie is the Count’s only heir; the family name will die with her.” (Strindberg and the poetry of myth, 1982, p71)

This suggests that there is no males in this play that control family life, and the family’s fate is down to Julie. From this also arises the theme of female identity in society once again, and dramatises the deterioration of men as a dominating figure of society as well as their authority in the home.

There have been playwrights and practitioners who have criticized naturalism, one of the most famous being Bertolt Brecht who has formed the practice of epic theatre. He disagreed with the illusion of reality on stage and he disliked Stanislavski’s practices of staying close to the characters on stage in order to represent real life, and through his own theory, he believed in distancing the actor from the character using the verfremdungseffekt.

Even in today’s society, naturalism throughout the arts is still used vastly. Playwrights are still producing naturalistic performances, for stage, film and television. Raymond Williams quotation explores the main outlines of naturalism and through researching this I have discovered that before the naturalism movement there was minimal or no attempt to show a sense of place on stage or any development of character; Naturalism sought to explore what was real, real characters, real homes, real life.

I choose the musical Cabaret as it is a very powerful story, set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis were rising to power; it focuses on different controversial issues of its time period. A number of issues are explored throughout the unfolding story of the cabaret such as sexual freedom, politics and anti-semitism

I feel audiences will be attracted to this Musical because of its powerful lyrics and storyline, in particular, the two love stories: Cliff Bradshaw and Sally Bowles; Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, and the way the different characters are portrayed in the musical.

2. Text: What are the ideas the playwright/ librettist is trying to express? What is the relevance of the musical to contemporary Australian audiences?

The romantic love stories of two couples and the impact society has on their relationships: the story of a young English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw; and the other story of a German boarding house owner Fraulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Both relationships are doomed to failure.

The musical is very relevant to contemporary Australian audiences

Audience will want to see this production, not only does it have excellent music but it portrays some very strong controversial issue of the time period. These issues are still present in our time. It is also important that we as Australians are reminded of the historical past and what we can learn to fight intolerance.

3. Costume, Sets and Props: What requirements are there in each of these areas?

Costume

Emcee wearing a long black leather coat and boots, eyes highlighted with blue eye shadow, lips coloured blood red, bowtie attached to parachute harness

Each cabaret girl to portray a distinct personality need to sing, dance, act and play musical instrument, they do not have to look spectacular, look like scanky low class girls. Cabaret girls wear scant lacy undergarments with holes and ladders in the stockings. The figures onstage look ghoulish.

Sally Bowles various – refer to photograph images below:

Ernst Ludwig dressed in trench coat in Act 1, Scene 2, and brown suite, etc.

Cliff Bradshaw dressed in woollen suit and vest + tie.

Herr Schultz -see photograph images below

Fraulein Schneider -see photograph images below

Fraulein Kost -see photograph images below

Sets

Act 1 Scene 1: Cabaret Scene – Broken light bulbs surrounding stage – see model.

Act 1 Scene 2: Train Carriage – Front of stage

Act 1 Scene 3: Fraulein Schneider Boarding House – Backdrop of 3 doors – with light fixture dropped from ceiling, see model.

Act 1 Scene 4: Cabaret Scene – Kit Kat Klub – full stage

Act 1 Scene 5: Cabaret Scene – Kit Kat Klub near spiral staircase – Sally’s dressing room

Act 1 Scene 6: Cliff’s room -backdrop of 3 doors – left side of stage

Act 1 Scene 7: Cabaret Scene – full stage again, focus on kit kat klub

Act 1 Scene 8: Living Room of Fraulein Schneider’s boarding house – right side of stage

Act 1 Scene 9: Front of Stage

Act 1 Scene 10: Cliff’s room -backdrop of 3 doors – left side of stage

Act 1 Scene 11: Living Room of Fraulein Schneider’s boarding house – right side of stage

Act 1 Scene 12: The Fruit Shop – window suspended

Act 2 Scene 1: Cabaret Scene

Act 2 Scene 2: The Fruit Shop

Act 2 Scene 3: Front of Stage

Act 2 Scene 4: Cliff’s room -backdrop of 3 doors – left side of stage

Act 2 Scene 5: Cabaret Scene – Kit Kat Klub

Act 2 Scene 6: Cliff’s room -backdrop of 3 doors – left side of stage

Act 2 Scene 7: Railway Station / Cabaret Scene

Props

Optional – 6 tables with telephones in cabaret scene

Train carriage bench seat or 3 chairs

Brown suitcase x 2

Black briefcase

Typewriter and case

Newspaper

Table or large trunk and 2 chairs

Optional – dressing table, mirror to one side near stage left spiral staircase front of stage

Suitcase (Sally) + 3 more

Sally wearing fur coat

6 chairs. Girls dance on them for caberet scene

Brown paper bag containing pineapple

Small wind-up gramophone

Table and 2 chairs

Bottle of Gin + 2 glass

Large gift-wrapped package

Envelope with money

Box containing fruit bowl

Suitcase (Schultz)

4. Briefly outline how lighting and sound will contribute to your production. Prepare a list of the sound and light effects you would like and indicate when they occur in the production.

Lighting Design –

A single normal house bayonet light hanging down in the centre of stage, this would be used for a symbolism of inside a room and the lighting which would normally illuminate the room.

For this musical, the lighting design will have to be very carefully planned, in terms of position such as, angles and thrust distance. As well as fixture selection taking into consideration the physical characteristics such as beam size, wattage, luminosity, fixture type, etc.

To light this stage effectively the stage will be broken up into a grid and each part of the stage will be illuminated

I would like to use intelligent fixtures with conventional fixtures. The intelligent fixtures would be great for scenes like the Kit Kat Club as this scene depends on colours and shadows to give the audience the right illusion of a seedy night club. Also, the beam of an intelligent fixture is quite sharp and doesn’t really produce much spill on stage so it would be fantastic for solo spots.

I would incorporate the use of follow spots, as I would like to keep the show in its traditional form and in keeping with the historical context. Follow spots are good for things like the Emcee as he moves around the stage.

For the cabaret scenes, use of deep blues, purples and pinks colours silhouetting the Kit Kat Club girls on stage. Lightings surrounding the stage and suspended window, door arches (e.g. I have included photos from previous shows I have designed to illustrate my ideas – see at the end of this report), and the second stage level floor will be bordered with festoon lights. These lights can then be chased. I want to portray a very dingy, run down club where some of the globes will be broken or missing, at the same time as the girls on stage will look sexy, as well as giving the set a very seedy appearance.

There are three main different sets common in this production: train scene, inside Fraulein Schneider’s boarding house, and inside the Kit Kat Klub. Each one of these different sets has a different appearance where the lighting is used to highlight and mark the difference to the set. For the train scenes, the lighting on stage will be focused mainly in front of the proscenium line with the rest of the stage in darkness. The colours used for this particular scene will consist of open white, fixtures will not be at full intensity as I want to achieve a dull Tuscan amber appearance. Lighting in the train carriage is not really bright and the majority of the light source will be coming from windows letting in the outside light from outside lights.

The second set scene is inside Fraulein Schneider’s boarding house – the lighting will be very much the same as in the first scene inside the train carriage. However, more of the stage will be lit, up to the back walls revealing three doors. Top level of the set remains in darkness as it is for the cabaret scenes for the Kit Kat Klub. There will be at least 3 hot spots for the boarding house scene where both Cliff and Fraulein Schneider move in most of the scenes. These hot spots will be located along the front proscenium line along the edge of the stage, and 3 lighting hotspots along in front of each door. Colours used will remain dim; most of the light on stage will look like its coming from the one hanging lighting batten as a light fixture which is incorporated into the set. The lighting will aim to show an old run-down boarding house where maintenance has been neglected.

The final set is inside the Kit Kat Klub, the entire stage will be washed in purples, pinks, reds, blues and a bit of white thrusters to illuminate faces. The scene is set in a seedy and dirty-looking night club. For the lighting of this scene I want the lighting to cast a silhouette effect on the girls dancing for the cabaret numbers. As the music changes and different scenes are set in different parts of the Kit Kat Klub the lighting changes with the mood. The majority of the lighting for these scenes will be coming from sources side, top, and behind of stage. The lighting creates a powerful perspective illustrating the emotions portrayed on stage. An effect only seen when we are inside the Kit Kat Klub is the festoon lights surrounding the edges of the stage and the suspended mirror in the backdrop of the set. When inside the Kit Kat Klub these lights are just on still, but when during song numbers these lights will be chasing forward, the classic Broadway lighting effect.

Main actors will be lit with use of the follow spot, the rest will remain in silhouette.

Sound Design –

All the music for the songs would be performed live by the band/orchestra which I intend to incorporate into the production by having them seen by the audience and positioned in acting blocked areas – framed upstairs in the suspended picture frame.

Various sound effects will be used to help portray to the audience realism. For Act 1 Scene 2 Cliff is on a train to Berlin – a screeching sound effect of a steam train travelling is used as background sound as if they are actually in a train carriage. To mark the opening of scene 2, a train whistle sound effect is used. Another effect used is of a crashing symbol to mark the change of scene. A sound effect used for act one scene 9, is of a voice of a young boy singing beautifully and the sound of a steam train in the background. Another sound effect is of a window shattering to mark the end of Act 2 scene 2.

5. Characters and actors: what kind of people are the characters of the musical? In what kind of world do they exist? If you had complete freedom of choice, what actors would you cast in your production?

Emcee

Sally Bowles

Cliff Bradshaw

Fraulein Schneider

Herr Schultz

Fraulein Kost

Ernst Ludwig is a member of the Nazi Party and befriends Cliff

Cabaret Girls

Cabaret Boys are homosexual and work at the Kit Kat Klub

6. How many production crew/ staff are required to stage this production (during the season – ignore pre-production)? Draw up a running crew list, with a description of what each person will be responsible for.

Title

Quantity

Description of responsibility

S7tage manager

1

Production week

ensure all set building, lighting equipment, props, costumes, furniture and equipment ready.

Do cue sheets, prop settings and running order

Prepare assistant stage managers running plot

Do lighting and sound synopsis

Organise time fro technical rehearsal and dress rehearsal

At technical rehearsal, make all final checks and discuss all effects with Director

Time cues and calls in prompt book

Finalize all elements of prompt book

Attend dress rehearsal and note any problems.

First night and performance run

– Check everything

– Remain calm

– Reset play after performances

– Give calls and check all actors and crew present

– Liaise with front of house staff

– Note any alterations or repairs necessary.

Lighting Designer

1

Rehearsal: Go though the musical scene-by-scene with the Director to plan precise lighting details.

Work out presets and cues and help stage manager to mark the prompt book

Buy or hire equipment as needed

Work out a lighting synopsis with the stage manager

Production week: Rig and focus lighting fixtures

Attend technical rehearsal and test lighting and solve problems

Make final adjustments and prepare controls

Lighting Operator

1

Program lighting cues as discussed during rehearsals with stage manager and director.

Attend technical and dress rehearsals.

Fix any problems with lighting designer.

Assist with lighting designer with making final adjustments.

Makes sure has all cues written in script

Operate the lighting console for the session

Sound Engineer/ operator

2

Attend Production meetings and rehearsals

Research, planning and purchasing sound effects recordings, equipment, supplies

Met with Director

Hire and rig sound equipment

Sound plot, mark in script with Director

Attend final dress and technical rehearsals

Operate the sound console for the session

Orchestra

8 – 12

Rehearsal all music parts from the score with all members of the orchestra

Conductor meets with director, stage manager and sound engineer to discuss cues for lead in and out. Organise the running of the show

Attend all shows of the session,

Stage Hands

4-6

Assist the stage manager.

Move props and set pieces around the stage for each scene change.

Organise the actors and escort and cues actors to when to come onto stage and off.

Director

1

Is to organise and meet with every department to ensure that everyone is ready for the upcoming session week leading up to the opening night

Polish final rehearsals.

Make sure all problems have been solved before show commences.

Attend light and sound plotting sessions

Attend all rehearsal leading up to the show discuss notes.

Set Designer

2

Attend Dress And Technical Rehearsals

Make minor alterations

Load in the set and help with the construction

Supervise the Set Builders.

Organise props

Make notes of any problems in the last rehearsals leading up to opening night

Make sure all props and sets have been finished been built and ready to be put in place on stage

Transport set from work shop to theatre venue

Costume Designer

And makeup artist

6

Check all costumes are finished

Make sure any last minute orders have arrived ready in time for opening night, eg wigs

Attend all rehearsals leading up to show opening

Have all actors in costume for the dress rehearsals

Check make up, and add suggestions to individual makeup artist, check how all actors look on stage.

Administration

10-12

Organise the box office

Sell tickets

Work in FOH; sales, bar, ushering

Organise and arrange FOH displays,

Print Programs

Look after the audience.

Organise the theatre ready for the audience members

Attend final rehearsals

Set Builder

6

Install the set

Repair any wear and tear damagers

Fix all the minor details and finishing touches to the set.

Paint the set

Assist the set designer

7. Design: How would you describe the imaginative world of the musical? What is its Location? What is the period of your production?

The period of this production is set in Pre-World War Two – 1930’s in Berlin, the capital city of Germany.

This should be a minimum of 300 words, and rather than giving a synopsis of the productions. Should give an understanding of what you liked about it – why it inspired you. It should be a personal response to the production, and should at least touch on how the technical elements of the production supported the narrative.

Wicked

My experience in theatre has been with amateur productions – it was exciting to see a professional show of the magnitude of Wicked. The stage for Wicked was imaginative and impressive. The lighting in Wicked was particularly inspiring and I could easily make connections to my past lighting experience such as in Wizard of Oz, an amateur production I was involved in with a similar storyline. I can see how aspects of Wicked could be incorporated into the Wizard of Oz production to make it more professional.

Special effects were projected throughout the production to add to the set and properties, to portray illusions into the audience. The image of Glinda opening entrance when she descended in a bubble onto the stage was fabulous. Another example was seen in the creating of rain. I was awed by the lighting effects produced by the projectors to create the backdrop of the magical green sparkle on the backdrop of the map of Oz which was seen as the opening and closing of the production.

In the final scene in Act one – during the song ‘Defining Gravity’, Glinda is singing about her feelings of being scared, after she was tricked by the wizard to use her magical powers to turn the talking monkey into an evil flying monkey unable to talk. She uses her flying broom stick to escape, I was inspired by the lighting as it was used in a dramatic way as she rises into the air, use of prism scattered gobos in all 5 intelligent fixtures focuses on her as she ascended into the sky, creating a powerful silhouette of colour and rays of light in all directions, ending in a quick blackout to end the song a very powerful ending using the lighting.

The use of lighting elements such as colours to create mood, gobos to add patterns and shapes allows the audience to move from reality to the imaginary world of Oz. In Wicked the attention to detail was very obvious. The use of fairy lights built into the set and the use of tracks to move sets on and off stage was amazing and resulted in an impressive production. My goal is to produce theatre as amazing and as professional as what I saw in this production especially in lighting and sound.

Discuss how the choreography of Martha Graham or Merce Cunningham reflected the changing contexts in which her/his work was produced.

Martha Graham (1894-1991) was a truly inspirational and revolutionary performer and choreographer throughout the 20th century. Her work was a great influence to people from all aspects of the arts, from famous stage actors to painters, composers, sculptors and of course choreographers. Over Graham’s seventy year long career she created a great many one hundred and eighty one pieces. (States http://www.innovationpark.psu.edu/coolblue/events/martha-graham-dance-company-clytemnestra – last accessed 05/01/2010) These were an important influence for many people. She changed the way many perceive and interpret dance.

It was 1910 when Graham was sixteen that she first laid eyes on an enthralling dance piece. It was seeing Ruth St. Denis at a performance of her famous solos “The Cobras“, “Radha“, “Nautch” and “Egypta, in Los Angeles that caught her attention. Graham knew from this point on that this new, defining concept of dance with bare feet and natural flow is what she wanted to devote her life to. Due to her persistent and determined nature, she refused to conform to the social normalities of ballet within ‘contemporary’ dance. It was 1926 when Graham formed the ‘Martha Graham Dance Company’. She veered off from the strict form of traditional ballet and led the way for a new language of dance which was based on her own principles of dance as an inner expression. With this ideology she focused more on significant movement than on classical technique, the likes of which ballet demands. She loved the form of precise movements of the body and she was set to facade classical dance moves. She would go on to do this through her expressionistic work. Many of her performances would involve a rather racy theme, or something that was very rare for the period in which it was created. She also reflected what was going on around her socially. When discussing Graham’s use of contraction and release, for which she was so well known, Susie Cooper (2009) states, ‘Graham developed the movements of breathing – contraction and release – as the basis for her movement vocabulary and technique.’ When breaking down the dance of Graham I think Merle Armitage said it best;

‘The dance of Martha Graham is neither literally (story telling in the allegorical sense) nor is it symbolic. It is a pure art of the dance…a play of form which in itself is significant and provocative…a language of its own, not a hand-maiden of another art form. Perhaps it is the first uninfluenced American dance expression, wholly disarming in its simplicity but curiously profound in its complexity.’
(Armitage, M. 1969 Martha Graham the early years. Da Capo Press, Inc.)

Graham was greatly influenced by her father. Dr Graham was a physician who showed particular interest in the way people moved and used their bodies. This state of mind was passed on to his daughter and later on in her life she used to state his favoured dictum ‘movement never lies’.
Graham was inspired by many different sources ranging from paintings and artwork to Greek mythology, Native American ceremonies and the American Frontier. Most of her truly memorable roles depict grand and significant women in history. Such as Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Medea, Phaedra and Joan of Arc.
Lamentation is Graham’s dance from 1930. It is a solo choreography which shows the struggle of human emotion and is a visual counterpart to the contemporary architecture that was beginning to grace the skyline of New York in a new and exciting way. Graham describes her piece as;

‘a solo piece in which I wear a long tube of material to indicate the tragedy that obsesses the body, the ability to stretch inside your own skin, to witness and test the perimeters and boundaries of grief, which is honourable and universal.’ (Graham, M. 1991 Blood Memory: An Autobiography. Doubleday; 1st edition.)

Many of her movements in this piece are from a grounded position and slowly contract and release to an upward position, much like the building and construction of a skyscraper. For example she is sitting on the edge of a bench and contracts from side to side and then arches into a high release which represents the rise of a building. As the dance progresses Grahams’ movements become a lot faster and angular. This shows the speed and contemporary design that the buildings were being built.

‘It seems safe to assume that her fundamental aim is to allow the power and energy of the living world to filter through and animate her work.’ (Armitage, M. 1969 Martha Graham the early years. Da Capo Press, Inc.)

Chronicle (1936) brought upon a new period of contemporary dance. Completely danced by women, serious issues were brought to light for the first time. It is a preface to war, devastation, destruction and seclusion. It showed Graham’s anti-war stance. It was a counterpart to events such as the great depression. It was an iconic step forward in modern dance.
Clytemnestra (1958) was considered by many to be Graham’s masterpiece. It was an evening long performance, her largest scale work that she ever produced. Composed by Halim El-Dabh. The piece is based on an ancient Greek story about Queen Clytemnestra. It involves love affairs and sacrifice of her daughter. This was a very symbolic piece, use of red material as costume and props for the entrance to the Queen’s bedchamber. Graham had used material before in Lamentation but not in a design way, so Isamu Noguchi incorporated it within the design. (Graham, M. 1991 Blood Memory: An Autobiography. Doubleday; 1st edition.)
Graham collaborated with many artists and visionaries alike. (The following are just to name a few.) Many of whom influenced her work and she in turn influenced them. Isamu Noguchi was a famous sculptor and was a good friend of Grahams and created many of her sets for her pieces. Graham was often compared to many famous artists by society. Her affect on dance was thought upon like Stravinsky’s music, Picasso’s paintings or Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. One of the foremost composers of the time, Aaron Copland, worked with Graham. Copland was known to incorporate jazz music and folk music into his compositions, a revolutionary design for the time. This was then shown through Graham’s pieces, for example, Appalachian Spring (1944), one of Graham’s well known dances, had a brand new score created for it by Copland. This was a revolutionary piece both in the style of the choreography and of the music. Appalachian Spring was Graham’s piece based on a springtime celebration of the American pioneers of the 19th century after they build a new farmhouse. Other composers were William Schuman, who composed Night Journey (1947) for Graham, Samuel Barber composed Frescoes (1978/79). Louis Horst was another of Graham’s most valued composers, also known to be Graham’s closest adviser on choreographic and creative issues. Graham collaborated with the famous designer Roy Halston Frowick, who created the costumes for some of her later works. He was one of the most proclaimed designers of the seventies. The first time Graham collaborated with Halston was on her work Lucifer (1975), which starred Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Lucifer was a reference to the ‘light bearer’ of biblical times. When talking about this piece Graham states;

‘Many people have asked me why I did Lucifer with Rudolf Nureyev. Lucifer is the bringer of light. When he fell from grace he mocked Gosh. He became half god, half man. As half man, he knew men’s fears, anguish, and challenges. He became the god of light. Any artist is the bringer of light. That’s why I did with Nureyev. He’s a god of light.
And Margot Fonteyn was such a glorious complement to him at it. Luminous as night. When I first saw Margot Fonteyn she was a great and beautiful figure. The magic of Margot’s presence is an elusiveness of spirit that defies description’
(Graham, M. 1991. Blood Memory: An Autobiography. Doubleday; 1st edition.)

Graham’s final performance in which she danced was her work Cortege of Eagles (1967). It is one of her Greek mythology drawn pieces. It is about Hecuba reliving the massacre of the Trojan War. It is a very dramatic based piece focusing on the internal actions and ideals of Hecuba. It is not as investigative as her earlier Greek mythology drawn pieces. It has a focus to emotions and presence more than movement of Graham herself. Instead the actions are carried out by the chorus of dancers. As if they were playing out Hecuba’s memories.

Martha Graham is still celebrated today as one of the most important performers and choreographers of all time. Maple Leaf Rag (1990) was Grahams last choreographed work with a score by Scott Joplin and Calvin Klein’s costumes. Graham was working on a piece called The Eye of the Goddess before her death in 1991. It was her new ballet for the Olympic Games in Barcelona.
So many of her students became choreographers and company leaders and took a certain aspect of her work with them. Merce Cunningham is a prime example, and this is one of the reasons why we still get to see a lot of her style of work today. Graham changed the concept of what we know as ‘contemporary/modern dance’. If not for her, many ideas of how we perceive dance would not exist in the present day. Some found Graham’s work ugly and hateful; others called it a revolutionary masterpiece.

‘People have asked me why I chose to be a dancer. I did not choose. I was chosen to be a dancer, and with that, you live all your life. ‘
(Graham, M. 1991. Blood Memory: An Autobiography. Doubleday; 1st edition.)

Bibliography

Books

Horosko, M. 2002 Martha Graham: The Evolution of Her Dance Theory and Training. University press of Florida.

Armitage, M. 1969 Martha Graham the Early Years. Da Capo Press, Inc.

Graham, M. 1991 Blood Memory: An Autobiography. Doubleday; 1st edition.

DVDs/Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEvcP-vXk4M (Last accessed on – 13/11/09)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgf3xgbKYko (Last accessed on – 12/11/09)

DVD Martha Graham in Performance. Kultur.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFNsKeMbW20 (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://community.ovationtv.com/_Martha-Graham-A-Dancer-Revealed/video/251083/16878.html (Last accessed on – 06/01/10)

Websites

http://www.studio360.org/americanicons/episodes/2006/01/07 (Last accessed on – 13/11/09)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham (Last accessed on – 13/11/09)

http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~esouche/dance/Lamentation.html (Last accessed on – 12/11/09)

http://www.dancehelp.com/articles/modern-dance/martha-graham.aspx (Last accessed on – 13/11/09)

http://www.pitt.edu/~gillis/dance/martha.html (Last accessed on – 26/11/09)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/aaron-copland/about-the-composer/475/ (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/martha-graham/about-the-dancer/497/ (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/isamu-noguchi/about-isamu-noguchi/675/ (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Spring (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://www.studio360.org/americanicons/episodes/2006/01/07 (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://www.answers.com/topic/louis-horst-1 (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Schuman (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://marthagraham.org/resources/about_martha_graham.php (Last accessed on – 19/12/09)

http://www.innovationpark.psu.edu/coolblue/events/martha-graham-dance-company-clytemnestra (Last accessed on – 05/01/10)

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/06/arts/the-dance-martha-graham-s-cortege-of-eagles.html?&pagewanted=1 (Last accessed on – (05/01/10)

http://www.exploredance.com/marthagraham2103.php (Last accessed on – 05/01/10)

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/47790.Martha_Graham (Last accessed on – 06/01/10)

To demonstrate how a practitioner influenced the development of Musical Theatre, there will be an in depth analysis of Jonathan Larson’s works Rent and Tick, Tick…Boom, which will show how his style influenced other modern practitioners that got some of their ideas based on his works and how his works were influenced by other practitioners in the beginning.

Jonathan Larson was indeed a remarkable writer and composer who had his own stories to tell. Although his death came too early, his success can still be seen in his greatest work, the musical Rent and it may be said that As an artist, Jonathan Larson’s discovered his passion for music following Elton John and Billy Joel, but it was musical theatre that caught his eye while his parents introduced him to the musical Fiddler on the Roof. As he later on said by himself, he always wanted to write music that could incorporate all of these influences.

The path lead him to a four year drama major, but it was the composing that was his main interest and soon enough he started writing music for school productions. During his college years Jonathan Larson got in contract with the composer Stephen Sondheim, who was also his strongest musical theatre influence and later on his mentor. Sondheim told him later that Never the less he didn’t go on as an actor and took a step into the composing world,he was still a struggling artist who spend years living his life working as a waiter just to pay his bills, while writing numerous theatrical pieces with a poor success story. With the musical Tick, Tick…Boom, which was an autobiographical work of Larson’s life and was reflecting his alter ego, he finally got recognized, but still not the way he wanted to. As Siegel describes the show in New York times The songs and stories were half-funny and half-bitter tales of bad readings and waiting tables. He addressed his disappointment with putting the show of in 1994. But there was still no reason for him to give up, especially when he got into collaboration with Billy Aronson, a playwrighter who played around with the idea of updating Puccini’s opera La Boheme. The project didn’t get started until 1991, when Larson felt the need to tell the story about his friends who were diagnosed with AIDS. Larson stated himself while he was still alive and that truly represent the path that Rent went since the beginning of the show till this day. Many links between the big success of the show and Larson’s death have been made during the time, but it is not said for sure that his death is the cause for such a big success of the musical Rent. The only thing that can be said for sure is, that the show is popular as the numerous amounts of awards that the show won present. , said by Wilson Jermaine Heredi, an actor of the original cast from Rent, shows that Rent really was a new era in theatre. Never before was there a musical telling a story about HIV infected people, drugs and homosexuals. The reviews for the show were well received, as reported in New York times. But it was the audience who gave Jonathan Larson a chance and made Rent to what it is today, an award winning musicals. A musical that is different to others, because it represents Even though Rent is a parallel to Puccini’s 1896 opera La Boheme, Jonathan Larson took the idea and collaborated with Billy Areson and transformed it into a contemporary story that was never told before. The audience can get the chance to watch two pieces back-to back in a one repertoire and see the show not only as a good composers work but as an artistic creation. Artistic creation which illuminates Jonathan Larson’s brilliance, never the less Rent owes a lot to Stephen Sondheim’s work. Not that he was reproducing his ideas in his style, There are many similarities to Stephen Sondheim’s work Company, but they show the extreme contrast. The setting was changed from Upper West side to the Lower East side, as well as the characters which are presented as a poverty line of multicultural young people that are homosexual, drug addicts or over the top minded. It can be said that the shows are similar in the way how Stephen Sondheim and Jonathan Larson presented New York and their ideas. Not only did Sondheim’s influence reflect in Jonathan Larson’s Rent in the comparison to Company, but also his musical Sunday in the Park with George. There’s a common theme in both shows which demonstrate a central character that has went away from finishing something that is important forbidden personal relationship. Both shows describe that Never the less, nothing can take Larson’s accomplishment away. He was a great composer and writer who was able to take Sondheim’s ideas and recreate them with his own style. This indicates how big of an impact Stephen Sondheim made on Larson. In an interview for New York Times, Stephen Sondheim later spoke about Jonathan Larson and said that a great musical theatre composer . Stephen Sondheim as his mentor encouraged him while he was still alive to get involved with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Jonathan Larson described it as , but he appreciated the experience later, because it gave him a chance to meet new composers and that gave him more confidence in his work. At the point when he has later written more material he said

Rent is classified as a rock musical, because of its rock influence. Examples of such musicals are Hair and Spring Awakening, which are both linked to Rent. It can be said that Hair was a big influence on Rent, because of the impact it made in that era, when people weren’t talking about drugs and hippies. Hair made a big statement at that time as did Rent. Both musicals told a story of confusion in each generation. Both works may be seen as generational anthems. Not because of the protest, but of it’s finally, youthful enthusiasm, even when the youth in question is at risk. Hair can be seen as a mile stone for Rent, which later impacted on Spring Awakening. Although Spring Awakening was already written in 1891 as a play, it s shocking story of acknowledgement of adolescent sexuality broke ground aesthetically, going beyond naturalism to presage expressionism. Since times have changed and today society is more open minded to the ethnological, sexual, and all other controversial aspects of human life, the effects of Spring Awakening as well as Rent have changed. In Spring Awakening the characters are still experiencing their awakening spring of sexuality and a couple of scenes might still surprise the audience, but in general today’s community is more used to that on stage now. As Rent made theatrical history with transporting Puccini’s La Boheme to New York, Spring Awakening made its own kind of history by putting a modern spin on a controversial play. It can be said that Rent had its influences and went on passing that to other musicals.

Although Jonathan Larson didn’t get the chance to witness the success of his life’s work, he left behind two remarkable musicals, which are both in subject matter unmistakable. Similarity’s in Tick, tick…Boom, especially in the characters, for which may seem they are sometimes show that Jonathan Larson’s work had a deeper meaning and a thought of memories of his lost friends. As a composer his answer to the acknowledgement that he has just lost people that he loves was to write something in response. He later on said,Despite the fact that he never got the chance to see how his words and music inspired people, the musical Rent still goes on filling theatres with his story and the affect that he left behind may be seen in new works appearing on the stage. Jonathan Larson wanted to give all a lesson about how to go on in the time of great loss and not anything for granted.

“Jasmin Vardimon Company (JVC) is one of Britain’s most pioneering physical dance theatre companies, creating work that excites both the eye and the mind by pushing the boundaries of human physicality whilst engaging in universal, contemporary themes that strike an emotional chord.”[1]

In this piece of work I will be discussing one of Britain’s leading Contemporary Choreographers, Jasmin Vardimon. I will discuss her history, how she rose from the Kibbutz in Israel, to become one of the most influential and dynamic choreographers in Britain today. I will discuss her company’s origin, her most important work to date, achievements and awards that she has received and how she is influencing the contemporary dance world in Britain and abroad today.

Biography

Born and raised on a Kibbutz in central Israel, Jasmin Vardimon has become a significant element within the British dance scene. Before turning to dance, Vardimon done military service at the age of 18 for two years, she also worked as a psychological “interviewer”, studying and interviewing people.

She has made a name for herself throughout the years after first joining the Kibbutz Dance Company, which is one of Israel’s principal dance companies, before going on to win the British Council “On the Way to London” award in 1995. After moving to London in 1997, Jasmin Vardimon founded her own company Zbang, which is now know as Jasmin Vardimon Company.

Influences

Throughout the past decade Jasmin Vardimon has developed a strong recognisable artistic voice in the contemporary world. Vardimon’s work is centred around the human behaviour, which is portrayed through the storyline of each piece. Vardmons’ choreography is “Renowned for dynamic, funky and highly physical choreography that is thrilling to watch”[2]. From personal experience of seeing Jasmin Vardimon show called Yesterday in the McRoberts Theatre, Stirling, I felt the performance was one of the few shows that I have seen, were I was unable to take my eyes off the dancers.

The physical demands that the dancers face, such as the fluidity of the complex movements and how all the dancers have each series of sequences in perfect unison, also the way they were able to interpret each characters. The characterisation made the choreography and storyline so believable. In my opinion the show was absolutely breath taking.

“I read see and hear all the time and get influences from many little things, mostly from real life.”[3]

Human behaviour is a big influence in Jasmin Vardimons work, and this is strongly seen in her choreography. I believe that the psychological work that she did previous is one of her main inspiration when creating as she has a great understanding of the human psyche. Vardimons style merges together physical theatre and dance, with the outcome being energetic, explosive, beautiful with quirky character. Another influence in Jasmin Vardimons work is multimedia technology. In many of her works strong visual effects have been used to make the pieces come to life. Video recordings, video playback, special effects and complex lighting have been used to create the mood and atmosphere for the setting.

When creating movement, Vardimon works hand in hand with her dancers giving them a chance to help create material, from which she will develop further, “I work, a lot, with task orientated techniques so I would give [the dancers] a task and see how they react to my idea and then I’ll take it from there.”[4]

Important works

One of Jasmin Vardimons most important works to date I believe would have to be “Yesterday”. This production was choreographed for her company, Jasmin Vardimon Company, for their 10th anniversary tour, which began touring in Autumn 2008, and is still touring at present.

“YESTERDAY is a retrospective new piece featuring some of the most breath-taking duets, striking solos andiconic moments selected from the company’s repertoire: Justitia, Park, Lullaby, Tete, Lurelurelure and Ticklish.”[5]

As well as using material from those previous works, Vardimon has added in new highly convincing, exciting and complicated choreography to make the show come alive. With a wide range of multimedia technology being used to enhance the effect the audience will perceive, this show as having phenomenal reviews from critics.

Jasmin Vardimon explains in an interview with Neil Nisbet in article 19, that this piece is not a new piece of work, but a collaboration of all her previous work she has done with her company Jasmin Vardimon Company, (JVC).

As well as having and choreographing for her own company, Jasmin Vardimon has worked with many other companies “Hellenic Dance (Athens), CandoCo, WID, Bare Bones, Transitions and curated the Dance Ballads Festival at the Oval House”[7]. In 1998 Vardimon was Associate Artist at The place and from 1999 to 1005 she was a Yorkshire Dance Partner. She is currently Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells in London since 2006.

During the past decade Jasmin Vardimon as receive numerous awards for her choreography and contribution to the contemporary dance world. Some of the many awards she has won are, Jerwood Choreography Award (2000), the London Art Board “new Choreographers” Award in 1998. She was also nominated for the “Best Female Artist award at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award in 2003.

Jasmin Vardimon Company, is a international company performing in some of the highly profiled theatres around the world. The 10th anniversary tour is the biggest tour, the company has done to date, performing nationally and internationally in Europe and Asia. The company is based in Brighton though does not have a permanent residence there.

The contribution Jasmin Vardimon is giving back to the contemporary world is through her educational outreach programme. There are two main workshops given, choreography and Repertoire, which is adapted for all levels. The workshops help to give dancers, amitoure and professional the chance to see how Vardimon works, also giving the dancers the chance to develop dance and theatre skills. The workshops can be tailored for the participants. They can be pure dance and physical theatre, or have a deeper look at social contents and problems such as bullying and illness.

The workshops are run by members of the JVC giving the chance to learn first hand what its like to work in such a inspirational company.

Adolph Appia (pictured left) 1862 – 1928, was a Swiss theorist, pioneer in modern stage design and is most famous for his scenic designs for Wagner’s operas (Design for act I of Parsifal Pictured left). What set Appia aside from other stage designers was his rejection of painted two dimensional sets. He created three dimensional ‘living’ sets, which he believed created different shades of light which were necessary as light was important for actors to engage in the setting, time and space. Instead of using the conventional way of lighting from the floor, Appia lit the stage from above and the sides of the stage, thus creating depth and a three dimensional set. Light intensity and colour helped Appia to gain a new perspective of scene design and stage lighting. This helped to set the mood and create an authentic stage set.

Appia believed that the reason sets weren’t successful during his time, was because of a lack of connection between the director and the set designer. He believed that there should be an artistic harmony especially between these two people in order for his theory to be successful.

There are three core points which Appia uses to help define mise-en-scene:

Dynamic and three dimensional movements by actors.

Perpendicular scenery.

Using depth and the horizontal dynamics of the performance space.

Light, space and the actor are all malleable commodities which should all be intertwined to create a successful mise-en-scene. He used steps, platforms and columns to create depth and manipulated light in order to make the set look real. Light was considered to be the primary element which linked together all the other aspects of the production and Appia was one of the first designers to realise its potential, more than to merely illuminate actors and the painted backdrop behind. This was shown in his staging of Tristan und Isolde (1923). Notice the steps, columns and ramps. Directors and designers of the present day have taken great inspiration from Adolph Appia’s theory. Perhaps the main reason being the huge advance in technology, which was only just emerging in the late 19th century.

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) also like Adolph Appia was an English theatre practitioner. Unlike Appia however he believed actors had no more importance than marionettes. Gentlemen, the Marionette is a writing in which Craig explains how the actors are merely puppets on strings. He had a great interest in marionettes claiming they were ‘the only true actors who have the soul of a dramatic poet, serving as a true and loyal interpreter with the virtues of silence and obedience.’ (Innes, Christopher, (1998) Edward Gordon Craig: A Vision of Theatre).

He built elaborate and symbolic sets, for example his set for the Moscow Art Theatre production of Hamlet (1909) consisted of movable screens. And like Appia, he broke the stage floor with platforms, steps and ramps. He replaced the parallel rows of canvas with an elaborate series of tall screens.

Craig left a promising career in acting in order to concentrate on directing and developing ideas about ‘the theatre of the future’, which was inspired by Hubert von Herkomer’s scenic experiments with auditorium lighting and three dimensional scenery in productions at the Bushy Art School. Craig’s idea of ‘new total theatre’ drew on the imagination to create a vision of colour harmony, visual simplicity and an atmospheric effect under the sole control of a single artist. Also inspired by his partner Isadora Duncan, a dancer which inspired him to look into the concept of the rhythms and movements in nature acting as a vehicle for an emotional and aesthetic experience. Craig was very interested in electrical light, something new and only just emerging in his time. An example of this can be seen when he worked on Dido and Aeneas. Craig used a single colour back cloth with a gauze stretched at an angle in front of it onto which light of another colour was projected, ‘ an astoundingly three dimensional effect was achieved’ (Innes, Christopher, 1998, Edward Gordon Craig: A Vision of Theatre, P. 46). He intensively researched theatre of the past in order to create his ‘new’ theatre. He imagined a theatre which was a fusion of poetry, performer, colour and movement designed to appeal to the emotions. As he progressed through his work, he followed his symbolist views using movement to create mood and in his studies in 1906 talked of removing elements of sets or props and replacing them with symbolic gestures. For example a man battling through a snowstorm, Craig questioned whether the snow was necessary. Would the actors’ movements be sufficient to convey what was happening?

In 1900 after Craig had developed himself as a set designer he worked on a production of Dido and Aeneas which was ground breaking as a set for theatre design. Due to certain limitations Craig was able to break away from the elaborate Victorian stage designs and experiment with abstract and simpler designs. Craig himself believed that what he was creating was ‘new’ theatre and wouldn’t be widely accepted until the future and this was true. During the 1950’s Kenneth Tynan wrote of how Craig’s ‘ideas that he expounded fifty years ago, in his breathless poetic prose, are nowadays bearing fruit all over Europe’. Craig has influenced practitioners such as Constantin Stanislavsky, Meyerhold and Bertolt Brecht, and he also still impacts many designers and practitioners of the modern day.

Although both of these designers worked independently from one and other, they arrived at similar conclusions. They both criticised realistic theatre, arguing against the photographic reproduction as a primary function of scene design. Appia didn’t agree with Stanislavsky’s theory of the ‘fourth wall’ so he discarded it and designed a theatre building which became the first theatre in the modern era without a proscenium arch. Both theorists believed that the settings should suggest and not reproduce the location. Both also broke the two dimensional view on sets by using platforms and different levels, designing spaces that were practical and functional for performers. Also with the advance in technology, both took advantage of electricity which made it possible for the stage to be lit using bulbs. This helps to develop as an art and both used light as an important part of their visual elements. Appia’s and Craig’s designs focus heavily on stressing contrasts between light and dark creating heavily atmospheric sets.

Appia and Craig shared a lot of the same opinions; however they were not in total agreement. Appia Believed that the director, fused theatrical elements and the designer was an interpretive artist, bringing an author’s work to life from page to, stage forming a functional environment for the actors. Craig believed that theatre needed a master artist who would create all of the production elements. His designs were frequently thought to be on a larger scale than Appia’s. Appia’s designs usually required a set change for each location in the performance, whereas Craig used the modern unit using one basic setting which can represent various locations throughout the movement of its elements with only the need of slight changes such as lighting, props etc.

Both Appia and Craig have greatly influenced the way theatre has evolved. Not only as technology has advanced but also at the way the directors, set designers and production teams in general are working. There is a lot more communication and discussion between the director’s and the set designer’s vision into how a set should look. Also Sets on stage are predominantly three dimensional using levels, ramps, stairs and depth. The use of light has perhaps changed the most dramatically moving from the floor to lighting rigs in the ceiling and along the side of the stage. It is safe to say without the ideas and theories that the two had, theatre may not be where it is today.

The La Boite Theatre Company’s production of Adam J. A. Cass’s I Love You, Bro , directed by David Bethold, is a play which masterfully engages and captivates the audience. It effectively tells an enthralling tale of love, deceit and manipulation. The play’s protagonist, Johnny, is a troubled teen who is desperate for love. Devoid of any power in reality, online chatrooms are his only escape. It is here, on the virtual stage, where Johnny meets, seduces and manipulates the unwitting ‘Markymark’, who through the lies of Johnny, becomes a tool in an incitement of murder. Although on the surface, I Love You, Bro may seem a twisted story of devious treachery, it is in fact a simple, yet tragic anecdote of a boy whose desire to be loved supersedes any other. The play successfully engrossed the audience through its skilled use of dramatic elements. The tension which existed in the play was well cultivated by the roles and relationships excellently portrayed by a single actor. Some of the success in this regard can be attributed to the highly creative use of the stage, and the combination of lighting and effects, designed by Renee Mulder, Carolyn Emerson and Guy Webster.

Behind the many masks which he creates, Johnny (played by Leon Cain) himself is just as intriguing a character as any he invents. Coming from a world of domestic violence, lacking any who sincerely love him, it is little wonder that he reaches out in the only way he has available to him; virtually. Early on in the play, Johnny tells the audience he was never an outgoing personality; however, as the story develops, so too does Johnny’s confidence. As the main protagonist, the story follows Johnny’s struggle to connect with someone, and the gradual transformation of this struggle into an unhealthy obsession. The subject of this obsession is the oblivious teen footballer, Mark. When Mark first begins conversing online with Johnny, he mistakenly believes him to be a female. Johnny plays along, eager to satisfy his desire to be needed by someone. As time progresses, the relationship between the two grows exponentially, to the point wherein Johnny believes himself to be in love with Mark, who was still unaware that his online lover is in fact a younger male.

Throughout the course of the play, Johnny conceived a multitude of spurious characters, all of whom served to further his connection with Mark. Initially, the chain of characters began with a simple error on Mark’s behalf. After mistakenly believing that Johnny’s online alias ‘AlbaJay’ was a female character, Jessica was born. Jessica was Johnny’s first creation, and became his obsession when he came to the realisation that she could act as a conductor for reciprocated love. Jessica, although starting off fairly innocently and without any intention of harm, Johnny soon begins to conceive new characters to fuel his insatiable desire to feel as though he is cared about and attempts to achieve this with his creation of two new fictitious characters. These characters are Simon, Jessica’s helpless, albeit fabricated younger brother and Stings, an intimidating bully. Johnny creates these people in order to heighten Mark’s feelings towards him by establishing an element of danger in the relationship the two share. By putting Simon in a threatened position, and then using it to pressure Mark into a predicament wherein he has limited courses of action he can take, Johnny takes the game to a much higher level, and as a direct result, vastly increases the tension in the play. Similarly, the creation of Jane Bond and Agent 41579 serve similar purposes as Johnny’s previous fabrications. Jane Bond and Agent 41579 both add to the danger involved in the romance, deepening the urgency of the connection between Mark and Johnny. In addition to this, Agent 41579 is similar to Jessica in that she acts as a magnet for attention and the affection of Mark. The establishment of the new relationship between Mark and Agent 41579 created a renewed level of tension after a lull in the play, and this was only increased as the plot continued and led to the attack on Johnny.

This story is played out on a quite simplistic and minimalistic set designed by Renee Mulder. It consisted of an abstract stage, which was elevated in the upstage region to creatively act as a cyclorama onto which images and videos were projected. As well as this, the stage had a simple wire framed desk structure at its most downstage point. It was to this point that the entire stage was pointed towards and focussed on. This was because the desk and the computer which sat upon it were the pinnacle of Johnny’s existence. His computer was the most important part of his life. The set was an accurate reflection of his world, and how it revolved around his online presence. The jagged and sharp edges of the stage also demonstrated the disjointed and shattered life which Johnny was a part of when not on his computer. The stage also worked well in cohesion with the use of a single actor. Being a small and uncluttered stage, the focus was always directed on Johnny and his actions, and this forced the audience to engage with him and added significantly to the play’s overall delivery. Another interesting aspect of the set was the wheeled chair which so often Johnny rolled around the stage on. The use of this chair to roll around stage showed Johnny’s internal conflict and indecisiveness. On numerous occasions throughout the play, Johnny could be seen rolling around stage when faced with a difficult decision. This clearly showed his opposing and clashing opinions, a metaphor for his uncertainty as to which direction to take, and ultimately, his uncertainty in himself.

The action of the play was effectively accentuated by lighting and effects. For the majority of the play, the stage was lit with an azure blue tinge. The lighting effects reflected Johnny’s personal feelings at any certain time. A perfect example of this was seen when Stings took over Johnny. Stings was the darker side of Johnny, and the lighting of the production captured this aspect of him perfectly. Each time Stings appeared, the lights would immediately and without warning switch off from a light colour, and the stage would be bathed in almost total darkness, with only the slightest hints of light dancing around stage.In combination with this, a distinct whipping sound effect was played to indicate the rapid and brusque change into the alter ego. After the change had occurred, a low and menacing tone was played, personifying the insidious nature of Stings. Similarly, the azure colour which was present as Johnny took the guise of Jessica showed his softer, lighter side. These lighting and sound elements were creatively used to transmit both mood and personality to the audience, as were the simple images and occasional video images projected onto the cyclorama.

Director David Berthold successfully manipulated the dramatic elements of distinct roles and relationships presented in Adam J. A. Cass’s I Love You, Bro. Consequently, the audience is able to connect on a very powerful level with this production. The play skillfully creates tension at key points throughout the plot, and by the timely balancing of this tension, the play was thoroughly engaging.

To discuss the historical development of musical theatre, this report will present an analysis of Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story”. It will demonstrate how the 1961 screen version has been adapted for the stage in the 2009 Broadway revival to suit modern day audiences and show its reflection through time with the use of ideas and different styles as well as social and economic influences affecting the works.

The conflict between the two rival gangs that is so central to the story could be further interpreted as a conflict between Catholic and Jewish communities, which was Bernstein’s intention in the beginning. However, Bernstein seized on the idea that current racial tensions in New York caused by immigrants from Puerto Rico would provide a more powerful story and he undoubtedly saw that this would also offer him the opportunity to use a range of Latin-American dance rhythms, for he later said…:

”it all sprang to life. I heard rhythms and pulses, and – most of all – I could sort of feel the form.”

(Bernstein, 2009, p.58)

Much about West Side Story in that time was new and revolutionary. Instead of the old fashioned romance, akin to the earlier musicals, this is a story of bleak despair. Extended dance sequences convey the drama, and in a place of rousing finals, both acts end in murder. Although Shakespeare’s text is not used, his characters are clearly identifiable…:

‘They say Shakespeare’s plays are timeless because they still speak to the human condition today”

(Fischbach, 2010)

Accordingly Arthur Laurent, author of the original book, got a second chance at his creation, and turned the 2009 Broadway West Side Story revival into the musical he always wanted to make. The Daily Telegraph found…:

”There is nothing new about this production of West Side Story – aside from the hot young cast – and it is a prime example of why new is not always best.”

(Lalak, 2010)

Social constraints of the time prevented certain usage of language, so some dialogue and lyrics were delivered in Spanish. This made a considerable difference without substantially changing the story. Laurent has given the show a more intimate feeling and made the Puerto Rican Sharks and their girls, more complete as characters. They are frustrated as strangers in their own land, and the use of Spanish immediately evokes their separation from the English-speaking Jets and their girls.

The fundamental problems haven’t changed much since the start of West Side Story 50 years ago, as we continue to wrestle with new cultures arriving. More importantly, though, this production sets the story of the two gangs and a brief and star-crossed love affair between Maria and Tony as a young person’s game. The casting here has made the lovers, both breathtaking in their roles, enormously youthful, which gives us more gleeful moments.

It isn’t to be, of course, but from the moment West Side Story begins with the legendary dance prologue through the neighbourhood, faithfully reproduced by Joey McKneely from the original choreography by Jerome Robbins, the show glows with redolent memories and enchants with brilliant new moments. It plays against a remarkably flexible set by James Youmans, used for maximum effectiveness by director David Saint.

”the fundamental problem with the show is its depiction of gang violence and the mean streets of New York.”…: as being said in the Mercury News.

(Craig, 2010)

That was always a signature of West Side Story, even in the 1961 screen version, but still well presented with fantastic dance sequences which were half-danced and half-mimed. This new form of dance became a visual symbol of a mode of thought. What the characters were feeling and thinking was expressed by their movement and their identities became inseparable from it.

However, when the movie was released in 1961 it wasn’t the dance which made a big impression, but the social tensions. It showed a fight for urban space, a space that has already been impregnated with cultural symbols and political significations for the relations, interactions, and social actions according to the “American Way of Life.” In this sense, the movie projected how the Puerto Rican migration to New York City in the forties and fifties not only took over the order of the Anglo-Americans, but how it also constitutes a threat for the assumed monolithic identity of the Anglo-American subject. New York City was shown as a divided territory, economically, racially, and ethnically. Each social-economic group inhabited a space and even neighbourhood border crossings were avoided.

West Side Story is up to date not only because of it’s lengthy dance numbers, emotionally drenched songs and scores, and a contemporary plot that speaks so much of the place and time where the story took place, but also because we are now in a place and time where social-economic issues continue to prevail in every household and community and where racial discrimination is still rampant.

The new Broadway revival speaks not only of this show’s unwavering popularity but also of the timeliness of the message it delivers, a message of love, peace and harmonious co-existence regardless of race and social-economic backgrounds. This message clearly transcends five decades of an ever-changing political, economic, social and cultural landscape and is still relevant up to this day.

West Side Story shows how dancing, acting, singing and design could blend together in unity. Whether it’s an old version of the musical or a new one, we might say that…:

”it marked the most impressive body of choreography in a single show, and it was acclaimed as Leonard Bernstein’s strongest work for the Broadway stage.”

(Garebein, 2000, p.9)

Sophocles’ Antigone tells a beautiful story of a woman who fights for her brother, Polynices, to be buried after her uncle and King, Creon, has declared that Polynices’ body will remain unburied for his ‘blasphemy’ towards the state. For the culture this is dishonorable. Disobeying her uncle, Antigone goes ahead and buries her brother with miserable consequences. As characters are introduced to the plot, their purposes are clear, but one character may stand ambiguous in purpose; Antigone’s fiance Haimon for instance. But Haimon plays a very crucial role within the play, both conveying the true feelings of state and sympathizing with Antigone’s cause.

Haimon as heir to the throne of Thebes remains very close with his father, but as fiance to Antigone, Haimon is torn as to advise his father whom he holds high. Therefore Haimon’s advisement starts timid: “I cannot say [father] that you have reasoned badly. Yet there are men who can reason too; and their opinion might be helpful.” Haimon’s clear drive to change his father’s mind is exhibited upon his first entrance in the play. “You are not positioned to know everything…” says Haimon, for his father has stubbornly sentenced Antigone to be stoned to death, but Haimon is stern to tell of the country’s feelings towards the matter. “I have heard them muttering and whispering in the dark about [Antigone.] They say no woman has ever, so unreasonably, died so shameful a death for a generous act…this is the way they talk out there in the city.” Haimon clearly informs his father of the people’s disapproval of the King’s actions.

Haimon serves as the only person to stand up to Creon. Clearly no resolution is brought about after the two have quarreled. But Haimon does in fact have a small effect on Creon, for Antigone’s sentence is changed for a much less demeaning one. Haimon’s presence is the only firm stand against Creon’s through the entire play. And this ‘stand’ roots guilt within Creon that serves as motivation for the character.

The final straw is pulled as the prophet Teiresias comes to Creon announcing his similar distaste, and bears a prophecy of tragedy. Creon is finally swayed to retract his horrible sentence but is too late, Antigone has killed herself, Haimon has killed himself, and Creon’s wife of the news kills herself. Everyone around Creon who had shared loved for one another have passed. And Haimon’s purpose is finally clear and digested.

In this study I intend to think through the relationship [between] and theoretical nuances of, sexual difference, performance, performativity and document, in connection to the performative art works of the artist Hannah Wilke. These issues will be examined specifically against Wilke’s (Fig.1) Intra-Venus No.4 and (Fig.2) Portrait of Artist with her Mother, Selma Butter. This discussion seeks to question the performative acts apparent in Wilke’s works and how she uses her body as the performative body in which to centre the critique surrounding gender identity and sexual difference.

By Performativity I do not mean to limit my analysis to artworks and discourse which might be considered performance art in the strictest sense; I intend to focus upon the theoretical sources in which critical analysis of the art work is based. Performativity configures the work as something more than an object or performance, it helps reinforce the claim that the work actually makes something happen. Skelly states how Wilke’s art practice;

“Captures women in new performative acts of femininity, using props, poses, and costumes to reconstruct their gender identity. This reconstruction calls attention to the fact that gender identity is just that: a construction dependant on a series of enactments.”

Focusing upon Wilke’s performative artworks in which poses of femininity act as a construction of gender identity; actions and performances are apparent through the visual work: seeing individual acts as inseparable from discursive relationships.

Chapter 1
Performance, Performance Art, Performativity

The concept of ‘Performativity’ obtains its implications from two distinct verbs, “to do” and “to be”. John Langshaw Austin, a British Philosopher known for his individualistic analyses of human thought derived from detailed studies of ordinary language, theorised a class of expressions which “would be classed as a statement, which is nonsensical, and yet is not true or false” neither descriptive nor possessive of truth-value. He identified everyday speech acts as performative mediations between speaker and recipient; attempting to account for the various performative aspects of conveyed linguistic meaning. For example:

“If one articulates a descriptive statement of fact, such as “it is forty degrees outside,” the receiver of that statement may rely on that information and, thus, choose to put on a coat. But that consequence is not a necessary response or effect of the utterance. The doing of the act is not achieved by the speech. Statements with a greater degree of illocutionary force, and hence, performative quality, include statements such as, “I promise to pay you five dollars in exchange for your hat.” Assuming this statement is uttered in the appropriate context; it constitutes a promise and enacts a legally actionable contract.”

In connection with J. L. Austin’s speech act theory Judith Butler introduced the idea of Performativity politically and socially in relation to gender and sexuality:

“Gender proves to be performative – that is, constituting the identity it is purported to be. In this sense, gender is always a doing, though not a doing by a subject who might be said to pre-exist the deed”

As indicated by Butler, the dominant heterosexual ideology is a direct materialisation of performed gender identities which attempt to challenge accepted social gender norms but, rather than questioning the dominant ideology, reinforces them through mimesis. Butler’s contention of gender performativity is that we are all constantly performing out a gender, in a way that produces sex, gender identity, or both. In this context, the performative is the construction of meaning through both verbal and non-verbal modes of communication.

While the concept of the performative, as used by Austin, Derrida and Butler is somewhat different to the notion associated with performance art, the function of language as sign, as demonstrated by Barthes, or word to mediate between viewer and performer, speaker, or artist is equally performative. In both theories, the concepts of representation, comparison and substitution act as rhetoric of communication; the performance relies on being seen by an audience: a mutual responsibility between performer and viewer. In artistic reference, performance art uses the artist’s body as the medium and it is through this presentation of the body that the work is produced. Performance art relies on being viewed by an audience, creating a non-traditional subject-subject relationship capable of exchange and interaction. The traditional subject-object relationship in performance art is an ever-flowing exchange between subject and object; it is in these exchanges that fixed notions of identity for performer and spectator get shaken loose and changed: subjectivity is questioned. In art practice it is traditional for the artist to be subject and artwork to be object, however, in performance art the relationship is changed into a subject-subject relationship; undermining the traditional notions of art practice by offering an inter-subjective production, as theorised by Merleau-Ponty:

“For we must consider the relation with others not only as one of the contents of our experience but as an actual structure in its own right.”

Meaning is, therefore, produced through the materialisation of the performative; performance artists present themselves both being and doing.

Butler proposes problems in the use of the performative in the context of performance as a simplification of Austin’s initial theory, whereas its definition as the communicative force of an utterance is embedded in the subject’s acts is integral to the studies of performance art. Both theoretical interpretations of performativity give primacy to the action taken by the speaker who, by doing, asserts his or her being. It is through the nature of the performative reference as action, and of action, through repetition, as materialisation that serves to close the connection between doing and being, asserting “I am”.

Gender Performativity

Gender works successfully as a performative utterance as it constitutes the very act it performs, led away from sociolinguistic approaches to identity that view the way we talk as directly classifying a pre-discursive self. Acts are a shared experience and collective action; the act that gender is wears specific social and cultural significations, clearly making ones gender a shared act: “in what sense, then, is gender an act?”

As I speak of Gender Performativity, I intend to oppose Gender Essentialism: the relationship between sexuality, femininity and the female body were categorised in the 1970’s feminist movement as ‘essentialist’. An essentialist theory of gender presents it as identical with anatomy, located in the differences between male and female bodies: men and women in opposition with each other by way of mental, intellectual, physical and emotional abilities, gender being defined by what it is not. That being against the being of sex and assert the doing of a gender: the act of interpretation as a performance in itself and the performative acts of femininity reconstructing gender identity.

“The self is nothing more than a series of actions – a performance – and that we then retroactively imagine that one performed this”

Colebrook implies that the body is not a natural bearer of sexuality, rather it expresses oneself through identity and gender; the body is just its performance and act: through the performance of a gender identity. Therefore the theory of a gendered persona can constitute, and not just mask, subjectivity. Does this mean the body is exhausted by or reducible to its performance? I will examine this below, in relation to the works of Wilke.

Chapter 2
Hannah Wilke

Hannah Wilke was a celebrated and controversial artist who came to prominence in the feminist artist movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s. The sculptures, photographs, paintings, performance and videos she produced examined the critique of the depiction of women and female sexuality within an art history of popular culture. She often pictured herself performing nude using coded feminine gestures and poses to submerge archetypes; ranging from the fashion model (Fig.3) to Mary Magdalene (Fig.4). She died in 1993 after a multi-year battle with lymphoma which she and her husband documented during the last few years of her life. Wilke presents the performance of her own personal life into her art: refusing to be defined by her body and its appearance in the later years of her life when she created the Intra-Venus series, which I will discuss shortly in my study.

“By photographing her own performative acts that reconstruct a different femininity in every frame Wilke’s artworks effectively unmask the performative nature of gender identity.”

Hannah Wilke is known for her “photographic work of performances in which she used her own body, and she established herself as both the artist and the subject of her work”. She coined the term ‘Performalist Self-Portrait’ to define the performative photographs she created; I will relate this to the two works I am going to discuss further on in this study. Wilke is a pioneer of feminist art and a prominent figure of the downtown New York scene; she worked in media including performance art, sculpture and photography. Known for her extensive oeuvre of provocatively self-reflective works, Wilke was one of the first women artists to cultivate visual repertoire. When speaking of performativity, specifically gender performativity, Hannah Wilke’s art practice and art works represent perfectly how a series of gender specific actions construct a gender identity through interpretation and representation.

Artistic meaning can be understood as enacted through interpretive engagements which are, themselves, performatively subjective. The act of interpretation itself can be understood as a type of performance, whilst the performance of the body as an artistic practice is a mode of textual inscription, the body is only experienced and known through its representational performances. In the case of Wilke, performance of the body as the artistic work exposes the fact that interpretation does not come naturally at the very moment the art work is made contact with. The performance of the artist’s body points to the fact that interaction among subjects is hardly unaffected by the works institutional and discursive stagings and more broadly construed social and political situations. Interpretation is also a mode of communication; similar to the production of artworks.

After her mother’s mastectomy, Wilke felt and wore her mothers scar; she needed to confirm the presence of her own body as female and living. The male art language of the female nude is played with within Wilke’s nude photographic works.

“Wilke states that her art is about ‘respecting the object hood of the body’. Although she strips herself naked, in acts and recode of psychic self-exposure, she also presents herself as the nude, sculptural and ideal form.”

She wanted to reinvent the beauty of the female nude through the declaration and display of her own, while constructing exaggerations of femininity and sexuality, which require the viewer to relate back into art history of the traditional female nude. She also reinvented the female nude aggressively and poignantly, damning the patriarchal eye that fears and despises bodies of the diseased and of older women. Her nude female body is represented as the site of imposed cultural meanings and as the source for new ones.

“Exhibiting oneself is difficult for other people who don’t feel good about their bodies. I could have been more humble – but if I’d been more humble, I wouldn’t have been an artist”

Wilke was among the first group of women to enact their feminism on their own nude bodies, in ways that related their art practice to the body art of male artists. The use of Wilke’s nude body, feminine poses and beauty often led to conflicting discourse and reading concerning her artworks; feminist critics in particular have been wary of the ingenuousness of Wilke’s parody of objectification. Using the female nude as an object of representation and performance often led women artists open to charges of narcissism; Amelia Jones states this type of artistic performance strategy concept, seen throughout Wilke’s art practice, as “rhetoric of the pose”, indicating action and power.

“Through her naked posing, Wilke not only solicits the male gaze, she also circumvents its trajectory in advance by performatively merging her exterior (body image) and interior (cognitive, emotive) selves – selves that are strategically dichotomized in western patriarchy.”

The pose, illustrated by Wilke, not only enacts the subject but also confuses the notions of the subject as a constant, centered individual. Reiterating self-posing resists the notions of representation revealing something about whom and what the subject actually is; the subject is only known through Wilke’s performance and physical appearance: her flesh. However, her self-posing portraits create infinity of variables, allowing the viewer to approach and understand the work in their own way.

(Fig.1) Intra-Venus

In 1994 Wilke’s Intra-Venus project was exhibited at the Ronald Feldman Gallery, shocking the art world with her death-struggling art works compared to her previous works which were categorised as feminist and essentialist. This series of twelve large-scale performative colour photographic self-portraits, were taken over a two year battle, documenting Wilke’s struggle with her body and disease; a “testament to this notion that creating art can sustain the subject beyond her bodily demise”, shifting Wilke’s artworks from the established assumptions of 1970’s feminist art. The documented photos were regularly dated and positioned in diptychs that contrast emotional and physical states; planning every photo to document the disease and the transformation it had on her body. Although it is sad to see the documentation of a death, at the same time the viewer is able to respect the honesty and courage behind these self-portraits. Intra-Venus is a ground-breaking series, concerning the history of body art and the female nude, but also within the context of photographic self-portraiture being a mode of performance and identity.

Wilke had several charges of narcissism throughout her artistic career up to the point of her ­Intra-Venus series; performing a body that was now bloody, hairless, bloated and visibly compromised by her cancer and treatments provoked reconsideration of these narcissism charges. Although Wilke’s key focus was on her self and body, I do not think she should be tainted with the classical accusations of narcissism in relation to the Greek myth of Narcissus: compulsive self-love based primarily on the beauty of one’s physical appearance. Wilke’s ‘self-love’, as indicated by Intra-Venus is not one of obsession, but one of self-knowledge; subversive of the patriarchal society construction of the female body as only an image.

The Intra-Venus series compiles of: twelve large scale performative self-portraiture photographs; paintings made from the hair falling out from Wilke’s head during her cancer treatment; videos; and objects, such as bloody bandages. For this study, in relation to gender performativity and sexual difference, my focus is upon the performative self-portrait photograph Intra-Venus No.4 becauseaˆ¦. .

Read from left to right, Wilke has juxtaposed the two photographs producing a narrative that begins with intense illness and invasion of the body, and continuous onto a decreased illness and control over the body achieved through performance and posing.

The image comprises of two bust portraits: the first is of Wilke with her hands covering parts of her face in a gesture of emotion, fear? Horror? There are a few thin stray hairs on the top of her head due to the cancer treatment, her left hand is punctured with an intravenous line, and her nails are long and feminine. Without this connection to superficial act of femininity proposes the question of would I have been able to determine the gender of the face? This photograph highlights the performativity of gender by representing the artist, without her mask of hair, engaging in exaggerated performative acts of femininity. Wilke seems to anticipate the viewer’s emotional reaction; even the formless shadow behind Wilke evokes her ‘ugly’, appearing to imitate a gesture of nausea. Could this be Wilke’s success in creating an equal position for the female body and artist? By performing gender as a blend of the diverse traditions, does Wilke succeed in destabilising the traditional conventions of self-portraiture? Does the ‘diseased’ body blur the issues of gendered representation by the blurred signs of gender performance?

The second photograph of this panel is Wilke posing as a Madonna: the tone of her skin is a greyish yellow contrasting next to the blue of the blanket comforting her head and face. Beneath the blanket is a blue hairnet, revealing a still visible indentation on Wilke’s forehead. Contrasting against the first panel, in this photograph we see the presence of hair, eyelashes, eyebrows; peacefulness if set against the severity of its counterpart.

Although the title of Intra-Venus states a meaning of ‘self-love’ and ironically points to Wilke as a woman who used to be beautiful but is now representing herself as the diseased and ill woman and artist: we are supposed to be seeing into Wilke through the performance of her gender, beauty and illness. Butler discusses how our distance from gender and sexuality norms allows us to access them critically due to the distance of allowing us to use them when we only need them. Wilke did not choose to distance herself from the traditional norms of beauty; however, due to the results of her cancer and treatments she was forced into a position in which she could develop a critical distance: no longer needing physical beauty as it was not an option for her after the cancer. This critical distance from her beauty, body and femininity allowed Wilke to disrupt the idea of a consistent gender identity.

(Fig.2) Portrait of Artist with her Mother, Selma Butter

Portrait of Artist with her Mother, Selma Butter is indicative of Wilke’s earlier art practice: acceptance of all expressions of the female body as a source of liberation. Her work points to multi-layered narratives addressing traditional and normative concepts of female beauty, pushing against female objectification by the creation of her performative photographs, resisting stereotypical erotic ‘good girl’ models. She pushed for the inclusion of the body within a bourgeois feminist discourse, challenging a trend of anti-corporeal discourse that reduced female bodies to sites of exploitation and eroticism rather than as sites of revolution.

Portrait of Artist with her Mother, Selma Butter is another one of Wilke’s performative photographic portraits. This double panel shows an image of Wilke’s mother post-mastectomy, after her struggle with cancer. Whilst Butter is seen to be covered in mastectomy scars, the only markers on Wilke’s body are the objects of violence scattered through her hair and naked chest. Wilke’s ‘guns’ and her youthfulness, health and beauty fashions a stereotypical cover-girl shot,

“a phrase read as a pun: the beautiful, young, model woman ‘shot’ by a camera, murdered into a still, an ideal picture of femininity, the cover-girl who covers up her imperfections with the emotional and physical make-up.”

The ‘guns’ could be interpreted as emotional scars from past love, accepting the truth of life also being loss, beauty changes, age and illness cannot be hidden. This photograph is a perfect example of gender performativity: toy guns and metal paraphernalia scattered across her naked chest, the performative act of playing with ‘boys toys’, arming herself with the accessories of western culture: Wilke’s overly-exaggerated made up face representing the performative act of the mask worn by western women every day of their lives.

Wilke has made no mistake in presenting herself in perfect health; rosy cheeks and lips, long flowing hair, young pert breasts, and pale silky skin: she is as full of life as her mother is death. Butter’s illness is her own, and Wilke attempts to take none of this away from her Mother by creating sympathy for herself and her own loss: out reaching the works in which she approached towards her own illness. She examines the viewer, wearing an expression suggestion pain and sadness lie beneath her flawless, beautiful and healthy complexion. Inevitably, Wilke is echoing her own death; the image of a mother and daughter in a constant cycle of infection, affection and loss.

This panel seems a remorseless juxtaposition: one side an image of a young, beautiful ad healthy woman, littered with gun shaped objects collected as gifts from her then lover, Claes Oldenburg. The adjoining panel an image of a mother disfigured by a mastectomy, with visible scars and remnants of the cancer, suggesting a recurrence of the illness, her head if faced downwards from the camera, exposed from shoulders to waist showing not only an old woman’s fragility but also the ravages of disease. The cruel contrast between the two panels, the beautiful appearance of Wilke and the diseased scarred body of her mother, links very closely with what Wilke was to create in her art practice after her struggle with lymphoma.

This panel presents two types of look in which the camera captures; Wilke fiercely stares straight into the camera, whilst her mother faces downward in sadness and pain; this contrast in eye contact captures a tension between physical perfection and imperfection. Although Wilke shows signs of physical beauty in which her mother lacks: rosy cheeks, pale glowing skin, red lips; psychical imperfections are apparent: as a result of Wilke’s smirk she has deep wrinkles on the left hand side of her mouth, her hair is in a mess surrounding her head, gravity is pulling the left hand side of her face so her appearance is not symmetrical.

“She is not presenting herself as Wilke-the-beauty to her mother’s ‘abnormal’ body but rather as Wilke-the-actor whose body is captured in this photograph in a flawed state.”

This performative photograph is a performance of Wilke’s imperfections, opposing Amelia Jones’ argument surrounding narcissism.

Wilke’s representation of her nude mother with only one breast and a mastectomy scar contributes to an artistic project that points to gender identity as a series of performative acts.

“If gender is instituted through acts which are internally discontinuous, then the appearance of substance is precisely that, a constructed identity, a performative accomplishment which the mundane social audience including actors themselves, come to believe and to perform in the mode of belief”

The viewer does not believe Butter’s scar as a performative utterance of femininity; we can see that Butter’s normal femininity is only appearance; therefore we recognise that gender identity itself as performative.

Documentation and Act of Documenting

Documentation and the act of documenting are essential in Wilke’s work: exploring the relationship between photography and documentation and understanding how the physical photograph captures the exact moment in time to represent Wilke’s self-documentation and feminist art form. Hannah Wilke is known for her photographic work of performances in which she used her own performative body; she established herself as both the artist and the subject of her work.

The language of photography focuses upon how the camera isolates and freezes a single moment of time and performance; assuming a critical importance, creating a special subject to our gaze and examinations by being photographed. The result of choice is on the part of the photographer. Photography can be considered as its own discourse, governed by the qualities of the medium, theory and practice through which experience and appearance of their subject is their own documentation. As like every mode of documentation and medium, photography is limited by its own inherent specificities and characteristics, what they can say and show of a performance/moment in time is limited to how they can say and show it: “A still photograph cannot record movement, and although it may communicate some idea of movement through visual representation it can only do so photographically.” A still photograph enacts a distinct interpretation, a selective construction, which in its choices and creativity tells us more about attitudes to and understandings of performance: communicating specific perceptions, values, meaning, interpretations and ways of seeing. The photograph does not only allow us to see something at that moment in time, but it also articulates something surrounding the meaning and value invested in the ‘thing’ depicted, in terms of individual responses and experiences, and more widespread cultural perceptions and understandings. Photographs articulate a way of seeing: speaking of the performance that produced or inspired them.

In the instance of Wilke’s photographs, she invites the audience to enter her life and reflect on the performative acts documented through medium of photography: acknowledged greatly for her theoretical reach into the photography discourse. Although the works, of Hannah Wilke I have discussed (Fig.1 and Fig.2), are not photographs taken of an actual live performance they are still documentations of a performance, this being a gendered performance of her body: the body being known through its representational performances, whether documented live, in photographs, videos or text. “If we do not document performance it disappears; we document performance to stop it disappearing” Wilke has purposely documented her gendered performance as its natural social performance; her performative body and self-representation combine to create her self-documentation of sexual difference and gender. John Berger states how photography is:

“Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does”

Sexual difference and gender are both very personal social issues concerning self-representation, Berger here states how the photograph is a trace of its subject, belonging to the subject in a way no other documentation could. Wilke’s photographs capture this belonging evidently; the subject in both Fig.1 and Fig.2 being centralised around the artist, Wilke being photographer (documenter) and subject: traces of self-documentation and representation capture the performative acts of her own feminine gender identity.

Conclusion
Images