Staging Change|Brechtian Studies

I am happily betwixt residencies. 

In late October of 2022, I had a great two week residency at Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Scotland. Next week, I travel to Monson, Maine for a one month residency at Monson Arts.

Both are interdisciplinary residencies – visual artists, playwrights, poets, photographers,filmmakers all in one space.

It’s a gift to be able to share an idea and get feedback from the perspectives of a variety of creative minds. What I started in Scotland, I am hoping to expand upon in Maine.

In Scotland, I was on residency with an Australian playwright named Laura Collins. I had put my research toe in the waters of Bertoldt  Brecht’s epic theatre and knew that there were some links to be made between my ideas of pose and gesture in the human figure and the way Brecht thinks. Playwright Laura and I connected over this.

After going down a research rabbit hole of Brecht, I cobbled together a process of looking at a figure in a painting – that figure being your own image – and attempting to objectively respond to it through Brechtian exercises for the stage. I applied the process to myself first and then Laura was my first, very willing guinea pig.

I’m going to do a backwards thing and show you the end result of working with Laura. Next blog, I’ll take you through the steps.

Brechtian Study 2 | Staging Change | Laura, 30”x 50”, 2022 (oil on Yupo on panel, graphite on Mylar).