3D Woman Human
Created and Performed by Ally Thomas, Amanda Card, Amelia Bethel, Chanel Blanchett, Chanel Smith, Karen Loewy Movilla, Kyrie Ellison, Margaret Campbell & Sarah Sterling
Like everyone, Contemporary Collaborative Performance, a class comprised of our first year Theater MFA candidates, has had to re-configure our entire approach to making work. That is, the work of making theatre in collaboration. We’ve shifted our focus from one that takes into account the energy that exists when people assemble in the same room—a physical, social, and sensual/sensory experience, to essentially creating artistic tv with smartphones. It’s a new day, indeed, and we embraced the challenge in a couple of ways.
As professor, I endeavored to keep the focus on the creative process, paying attention to our personal experience while embracing what resources were at hand.
We wanted to retain a certain level of rigor in our practice while still making something that was personal, unique, and born of our shared experience. In the context of a theatre course, it is practicing this rigorous process that matters. To that end, we structured the class so that each person was a lead artist/creator/writer with a colleague as director and outside-eye. Some folks opted to create small solo works as well, as inspiration and time allowed. As I am not a professor of TV production, we made the choice to keep things simple, making brave choices without too much fuss. We worked with what we had, and focused on how we could articulate our ideas within this strictly visual and aural form.
And so, I am very proud to present “3-D Woman Human”, a collection of digital art pieces, assembled through the lens of making theater. On a personal note, I’ve found the process of watching these projects develop deeply inspiring and even hopeful as I might be watching our art form grow new limbs. Thanks for taking the time to watch.
I close with a recent quote from one of my favorite performers, Neal Medlyn:
“I hope everyone is safely difficult in these times.”
-David Neumann