SEDMIKRASKY études
Based on the 1966 Czech New Wave film Sedmikrasky by Vera Chitylova
Double Edge Theatre. Ashfield, MA. 2007.

ABOUT
This project was a series of three solo performance "studies" conceived and performed at Double Edge Theatre in the spring of 2007. They are loosely based on images and characters from Sedmikrasky ("Daisies"), and are exploring themes of femininity, sexuality, violence, and innocence. Études no. 1 and 3 were conceived in direct reference to particular scences in the film, while Étude no. 2 was inspired by (and therefore contributed significantly to the development of) the Carly character in Thom Pasculli's Freedom! And the Sticky End of Make-Believe, for which I was concurrently in rehearsal at the time (The teddy bear, for example, is an object dictated by and thus borrowed directly from the script.)

Using Double Edge Theatre's distinctive training style and methodology, I was able to expand my physical vocabulary and generate material for three scenarios in which each of my female "creatures" could create and destroy; reclaim and renounce; hide and seek. I was interested in devising a series of living portraits that could engage the audience by simultaneously subscribing to and exploding scopophilia—traditionally a cinematic convention used to objectify the female and distort her image into one in favor of the heterosexual male gaze.

I wanted to transcend and transform the imposed archetypes of "doll," "girl," and "queen," into powerful, multi-dimensional characters who wield as much potential for destruction as they do creation, for knowledge as they do innocence. I achieved this primarily by inviting rather than resisting the sexuality inherent in each of these scenarios; this is reflected most apparently in my choice of costume, but it is also manifest in my relationship to the objects I employ (e.g. a hammer vs. a fruit), and in my physicality. Each action was governed by a logic that was at once demented and discerning. It is through the exploration of this singular contradiction that I was able to experiment with physical presence in ways that were challenging and new. This issue was addressed in my relationship to the inanimate objects with which I was working, but it is in Étude no. 2 that this become especially apparent: wherein the teddy bear was forced into the roles of ally, enemy, lover, brother, slave, master, savior, and victim, in addition to its primary function of plaything.

It is also worth noting that Étude no. 3 was completely improvised, while nos. 1 and 2 were relatively well-rehearsed.