The first of PAJ Publications’ Performance Ideas books: small books that crossover performance, visual arts, dance, sound, and media. One of the hotly debated current issues is the turn by visual artists towards theatre as a way of working, by using plays, acting and rehearsal techniques for their art. The first of the new Performance Ideas books by PAJ, this volume includes playwright and curator Paul David Young in dialogue with many crossover artists, including Pablo Helguera, Liz Magic Laser, David Levine, Janet Cardiff, Alix Pearlstein, and Michael Smith, who offer wide-ranging views on performance, video, photography, and sound. Table of Contents Metamorphosis: How Visual Artists Turn Theatre into Art Theatrical Ephemera and Alternative Performance Spaces: A Conversation with John Kelly, Liz Magic Laser, David Levine, and Alix Pearlstein Beckett, Brecht, and Minimalism: A Conversation with Gerard Byrne Sounds Like Theatre: A Conversation with Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller Scripts and Process: A Conversation with Pablo Helguera, Ohad Meromi, and Xaviera Simmons California Conceptualism: A Conversation with William Leavitt The Rebirth of Character: A Conversation with John Jesurun, Joe Scanlan, Michael Smith, and Elisabeth Subrin California Conceptualism: A Conversation with William Leavitt The Rebirth of Character: A Conversation with John Jesurun, Joe Scanlan, Michael Smith, and Elisabeth Subrin About the series: Performance Ideas explores performance that crosses boundaries of all live art forms and media. The series highlights the long-standing editorial commitment of PAJ Publications to bring together the histories of performance in theatre and in visual art for a more expansive vision of artistic practice.
newARTtheatre’s greatest value may be that of a historical document of the understanding of a specific set of performance practices in its own time of making. The fresh and speculative perspective of these artists grappling with the evolving paradigm of the tightening entanglement between performance and visual artist is worth a read now and may be rich material for historians to come. - Jess Wilcox, The Brooklyn Rail