Queer Theory! 2006 Synopsis

QUEER THEORY: An Academic Travesty

written and directed by Thomas F. DeFrantz

Synopsis

Five individuals with little in common – but each of whom might identify as “queer” – find themselves on an all-day panel devoted to Queer Theory. Organized by queer ally and squishy faghag Eve, the group includes Michel, a supersmart, leather-happy, theorist extraordinare; Lilith, a hard-edged dyke, theorist, and performance artist; Daddy, a trannie trickster; and James Lapin, an athletic, everyday workout fag. The show project includes songs and dances that refer to the tradition of “travesty,” a theatrical parody that dates back to the Greeks. Queer Theory draws a map of the “queer body” so familiar from popular culture, to point up its blemishes, pick apart its strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately, celebrate its truth.

Author's Note

What is "Queer Theory" and how does it relate to ME? Are queer theorists and scholars devising ways of thinking about lesbian, gay, and trans- lives that will help me understand myself? Or are they spinning on gerbil wheels, spouting ideas without consideration for everyday pleaasures and pains? This musical play brings together characters from the pantheon of "queer studies" to tease the underpinnings of this new branch of the academy. Will queer studies be useful? Or will it be an ivory-tower distorting mirror that stretches everyday practices and ideas into high theory - just because it can? Queer Theory is a relatively new area of academic inquiry. Like any other horserace, we start at the moment of its greatest potential, with the shout: AND THEY'RE OFF!

Company

Thomas DeFrantz (director and author) received his PhD from the department of Performance Studies at NYU in 1997, where he first studied Queer Theory. Besides running around the world looking for evidence of queer life, he has taught at Stanford, NYU, and at MIT, where he is Associate Professor. Performer: Morton Gould Tap Concerto with the Boston Pops; Duke Ellington Tap Concerto with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. Founder: SLIPPAGE: Performance Interventions in Culture and Technology, in residence at MIT. Recent work: librettist for The Man In My Head, (NY Musical Theater Festival, 2006); The House Music Project (2005) a technology-driven dance work that explores the history of house music, a queer African American development of the 1980s; Ennobling Nonna (2004); and the solo tap/technology piece Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk (2005). Dramaturg and librettist for Donald Byrd/Spectrum Dance Theater production of the Sleeping Beauty Notebook, noted by the New York Times as one of the best dance events of 2005. Author: Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002) and Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture (Oxford University Press, 2004). web.mit.edu/defrantz.

Photos

Press

November 30, December 1, 2 2006 @ 8pm
December 2 2006 @ 2pm

MIT Kresge Little Theater
48 Massachusetts Avenue (rear)
Cambridge, MA 02139

admission: students $6, all others $10

Commissioned by
The Theater Offensive, Boston, MA
Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, VT
National Performance Network

info: 617.253.4720 email web


QUEER THEORY: An Academic Travesty written and directed by Thomas F. DeFrantz Synopsis
	Five individuals with little in common – but each of whom might identify as “queer” – find themselves on an all-day panel devoted to Queer Theory. Organized by queer ally and squishy faghag Eve, the group includes Michel, a supersmart, leather-happy, theorist extraordinare; Lilith, a hard-edged dyke, theorist, and performance artist; Daddy, a trannie trickster; and James Lapin, an athletic, everyday workout fag. The show project includes songs and dances that refer to the tradition of “travesty,” a theatrical parody that dates back to the Greeks. Queer Theory draws a map of the “queer body” so familiar from popular culture, to point up its blemishes, pick apart its strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately, celebrate its truth.

Author's Note
	What is "Queer Theory" and how does it relate to ME? Are queer theorists and scholars devising ways of thinking about lesbian, gay, and trans- lives that will help me understand myself? Or are they spinning on gerbil wheels, spouting ideas without consideration for everyday pleaasures and pains? This musical play brings together characters from the pantheon of "queer studies" to tease the underpinnings of this new branch of the academy. Will queer studies be useful? Or will it be an ivory-tower distorting mirror that stretches everyday practices and ideas into high theory - just because it can? Queer Theory is a relatively new area of academic inquiry. Like any other horserace, we start at the moment of its greatest potential, with the shout: AND THEY'RE OFF!

Company
	Thomas DeFrantz (director and author) received his PhD from the department of Performance Studies at NYU in 1997, where he first studied Queer Theory. Besides running around the world looking for evidence of queer life, he has taught at Stanford, NYU, and at MIT, where he is Associate Professor. Performer: Morton Gould Tap Concerto with the Boston Pops; Duke Ellington Tap Concerto with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. Founder: SLIPPAGE: Performance Interventions in Culture and Technology, in residence at MIT. Recent work: librettist for The Man In My Head, (NY Musical Theater Festival, 2006); The House Music Project (2005) a technology-driven dance work that explores the history of house music, a queer African American development of the 1980s; Ennobling Nonna (2004); and the solo tap/technology piece Monk’s Mood: A Performance Meditation on the Life and Music of Thelonious Monk (2005). Dramaturg and librettist for Donald Byrd/Spectrum Dance Theater production of the Sleeping Beauty Notebook, noted by the New York Times as one of the best dance events of 2005. Author: Dancing Many Drums: Excavations in African American Dance (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002) and Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture (Oxford University Press, 2004). web.mit.edu/defrantz.


Photos Press
	November 30, December 1, 2 2006 @ 8pm December 2 2006 @ 2pm MIT Kresge Little Theater 48 Massachusetts Avenue (rear) Cambridge, MA 02139
	admission: students $6, all others $10
	Commissioned by The Theater Offensive, Boston, MA Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, VT National Performance Network
	info: 617.253.4720 email web