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Drake performance to feature experimental theater duo

News Photo
Lisa Fay and Jeff Glassman

The Lisa Fay and Jeff Glassman Performance Duo will present several short experimental movement theater pieces at Drake University on Tuesday, March 23.

Fay and Glassman invent systems for organizing movement and speech in theater, similarly to how new systems for organizing sound have been invented for composing music.

Their performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Hall of Harmon Fine Arts Center, 2505 Carpenter Ave. Drake University’s Department of Art and Design is sponsoring the event, which is free and open to the public.

Fay and Glassman compose and perform movement-based theater art that applies complex composed structures to ordinary human behavior, often with satire and pointed humor. In their work, “natural-looking” behavior is subjected to contortions, subversions and convolutions to reveal its socially constructed face.

The duo works to invent systems for organizing movement and speech in
theatre, in a way similar to systems for organizing sound to compose
music. Productions are often accompanied by notated movement scores,
graphic representations that let performers move from mental images to
stage action.

Fay and Glassman, who have worked together since 1991, have
performed movement-based theatre works in tours across the United
States, Eastern and Western Europe, Mexico, Cuba and South Korea.


The duo works to invent systems for organizing movement and speech in
theatre, in a way similar to systems for organizing sound to compose
music. Productions are often accompanied by notated movement scores,
graphic representations that let performers move from mental images to
stage action.

Fay and Glassman, who have worked together since 1991, have
performed movement-based theatre works in tours across the United
States, Eastern and Western Europe, Mexico, Cuba and South Korea.

They also have performed in international theatre festivals in the
United States and abroad, including the Copenhagen International
Theatre Festival, the seminal First International Mime Institute and
Festival and the Gathering of Alternative Theatres.

The duo has received Artist Fellowships for original movement-based
theatre from the Illinois Arts Council and a National Endowment for the
Arts Choreography Fellowship for experimental movement theatre.

As working artists, Fay and Glassman have served the Illinois Arts
Council, the Alliance for Cultural Democracy, and the City Arts Task
Force of Urbana, Ill. They are currently an active member company of
the Network of Ensemble Theatres.

For more information, contact Lenore Metrick-Chen, Drake associate
professor of art history, at 515-271-3801 or
lenore.metrick-chen@drake.edu.

Caption: “Quartet for Six Stories, (work in progress), 3D grid with primary
Quartet score derivation. This 2-D graphic designates specific 3-D
movements.”