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Past Performing Arts | Artist Talks | Performing Arts
Performance and Mixed Realities: the “place” of digital proximity, mime & mimesis, and the undetermined vector of emerging virtual technologies...in a pandemic
Virtual | Artist Residency
STREAMS ON THIS PAGE US EASTERN STANDARD TIME Free for all audiences
Closed captions and a transcript are available for this prerecorded video.
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Examine a multiyear experiment in improvised live performance within the context of—and in tension with—digital life onscreen and virtual reality.
This artist talk will present a culmination of Dennen’s work while examining existing presentational paradigms and art practices, such as the lecture-demonstration and documentary filmmaking. As Dennen and his company’s unique mode of play works to destabilize traditional theatrical handrails like character and setting, the avatars representing the performers in this piece begin to rattle long-standing notions of identity, location, and voice.
Written, Directed, and Performed by James Dennen Cocreated and Produced by Lane Czaplinski Featured Performers: Lauren Katz and Joey Slotnick Technology Designer, Unity Programmer, and Editor: Christian Faur Original Music: ETHEL Audio Mix and Sound Design: Florence Barrau-Adams Audio Recording Engineer: Jordan Fehr Production Assistants: Namu Kim and Armaan Tucker
Support provided by: Wexner Center for the Arts Denison University Theatre Department Denison University Research Foundation Cynthia Ann Turnbull Charitable Foundation National Endowment for the Humanities Parnassus Performance Laboratory
Anti-gravity Donuts (James Dennen, 2021)
Marriage: a Work in Progress, adapted for Virtual Reality (James Dennen, 2021)
James Dennen is a theater artist and director who has worked in venues and festivals across the US and abroad. He was the founding director of the nationally acclaimed company ED, whose experiments in improvisation—seen at Steppenwolf and Lookingglass in Chicago, among other spaces—explore and expand the limits of presence in the theater. On video, Dennen’s experimental work with live performance, improvisational techniques in narrative development, and documentaries earned a New Television Award through Center for New Television funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. His scholarly work on improvisational theory and practice has been published in The Drama Review and the New England Theatre Journal. Dennen has taught courses on performance theory and practice, acting, directing, devising, dramatic literature, improvisation, documentary filmmaking, expository writing, and public speaking at Harvard and Brown Universities, Kenyon College, and Denison University, where he joined the faculty in 2017. He has an MFA from University of California, Los Angeles, and is ABD in Theatre Arts and Performance Studies at Brown University.
THIS PROGRAM MADE POSSIBLE BY Ohio Arts Council
WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY The Wexner Family Greater Columbus Arts Council The Columbus Foundation Ohio Arts Council American Electric Power Foundation L Brands Foundation Adam Flatto Mary and C. Robert Kidder Bill and Sheila Lambert Institute of Museum and Library Services Nationwide Foundation Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease Arlene and Michael Weiss
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY Michael and Paige Crane Pete Scantland Axium Packaging Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams President Kristina M. Johnson and Mrs. Veronica Meinhard Nancy Kramer Huntington Lisa Barton Johanna DeStefano Russell and Joyce Gertmenian Liza Kessler and Greg Henchel Ron and Ann Pizzuti Joyce and Chuck Shenk Bruce and Joy Soll Clark and Sandra Swanson Jones Day
Past Talks & More
James Dennen
