Rachel's Brain and Other Storms: Rachel Rosenthal: Performance Texts (Critical Performance Series) - Hardcover

Rosenthal, Rachel; Chaudhuri, Una

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826448968 ISBN 13: 9780826448965

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2001

Synopsis

Rachel Rosenthal is an internationally recognised pioneer in the field of feminist and ecological performance art. Her revolutionary performance technique integrates text, movement, voice, choreography, improvisation, inventive costuming, dramatic lighting and wildly imaginative sets into an unforgettable theatre experience. In the last twenty years she has presented over thirty-five pieces nationally and internationally. She has been called 'a monument and a marvel' and critically ranked with Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, Ping Chong, Meredith Monk and Laurie Anderson. Her work is passionately dedicated to interrogating, illuminating and improving the relationship between human beings and the planet we share with so many other species. Her performances explore and embody the long history and urgent future of this deeply troubled relationship, and use viscerally compelling performance to draw us into a direct experience of the beauty and power of our lives in nature.

About this title

About the Author

Rachel Rosenthal is Director and Founder of The Rachel Rosenthal Company. In the last 20 years she has presented over 35 full-scale pieces and has developed a revolutionary performance technique that integrates text, movement, voice, choreography, improvisation, inventive costuming, dramatic lighting and wildly imaginative sets. She is an NEA, J Paul Getty Foundation and California Arts Fellow and recipient of numerous awards. Una Chaudhuri is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of Drama at New York University.Una Chaudhuri is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of Drama at New York University.

Reviews

Rosenthal has been a politically engaged performance artist for 50 years, and this volume collects 13 texts she created from 1977 to 1992. The plays are grouped by four themes autobiography, mind and body conflicts, ecology, and warning with a brief commentary at the end of each section by editor Chaudhuri (Staging Place: The Geography of Modern Drama). Not intended for performance by others but as reports of Rosenthal's performances, these plays are firmly ensconced in the avant-garde. They have the lyric structure of lecture, harangue, chronicle, catechism, invocation, litany, or biography and revolve around a personal argument with the human condition and the political status quo. Together they are a valuable addition to the literature of the avant-garde. For further commentary on the artist, see Rachel Rosenthal, edited by Moira Roth (Johns Hopkins Univ., 1997). Recommended for theater collections in academic libraries. Thomas E. Luddy, Salem St. Coll., MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826448968
• ISBN 13: 9780826448965
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192