Capstone Weekly Reflection 4- 8/10/2018

This past week was slightly unproductive in terms of the amount of hours I spent working on this project but useful in terms subtle insights about my thinking of this piece. My solo rehearsal for contact improvisation was helpful in beginning to physically consider how this type of movement can be used to destabilize the body in terms of the kinds of behaviours it represents. I am especially curious to portray a kind of masculinity through the superhero that is less focussed on violence and aggression but has a more gentle, nurturing feel and conversation to the body. The idea of touch is also interesting to me to play with moving forward. The form of contact improv is based on how weight is distributed throughout the body and the kinds of connections that can be made with different kinds of surfaces, be they living or material. Most forms of superhero comics often portray heroes as initiators of touch in order to facilitate violence and receiving touch as a means of protecting others or preserving life in the face of danger or violence. I am curious to see how the form of contact improv can exist in conversation with the idea of the superhero in portraying some of these ideas, either through juxtaposing staging violence in the body in a non-aggressive way, or else opening up the kinds of possibilities inherent to the body of the superhero in an alternative form of masculinity.

Before my rehearsal, I began compiling my research on Bell Hooks’ ‘The Will to Change,’ which informed my thinking of contact improvisation as a form of movement and the ways in which it can be used for rehearsal. Bell Hooks describes the ways in which anger becomes a defining emotional trait for the socialization of males and violence becomes an acceptable expression of power in serving as an extension of anger. She goes on to highlight other forms of emotional expression are policed by other males within a patriarchal system of masculinity and ultimately rejected. Males in her understanding, are forced to perform a rigid, aggressive, potentially dangerous form of masculinity rather than being allowed to exist as full beings, full of subjectivity and without any sense of overdeterminism. In short, men are never allowed ‘exist as their full authentic selves’ but rather are constantly forced to perform a specific role according to a system of hierarchical patriarchal masculinity that promotes the dominance of men as leaders and in which worth is determined according to utilitarian value of one’s action as opposed to one’s simple being. It was interesting to consider this argument in relation to Judith Butler’s essay on Gender Performativity, in which she describes all social behaviours as inherently performative and only existing to the extent to which they performed. It raised the question as to what can ever truly be considered authentic behaviour and whether such a thing is even possible if all behaviour and expressions of gender are ultimately performative, especially when working within the form of theatre, which is itself performative. I wound up revisiting Michel Foucault’s ‘An history of sexuality’ and his discussion of power and resistance. Foucault describes power as existing everywhere, as well as the possibility for potential resistance. In this way, perhaps the possibility for resisting notions of patriarchal masculinity exists within the system itself rather than a separate or reactionary alternative to this kind of masculinity, which was echoed by Hooks in her text. This consideration of these three text was ultimately the way in which I began considering contact improv as a possible tool for staging violence or anger in relation to the superhero, when, for me, it is a form that allows for my full range of expression through the body, without feeling beholden to a specific kind of code of masculinity that can only be shown physically in a specific way.

The five assumptions I have for this project are as follows: 1) This piece will seek to destabilize how masculinity is portrayed through the superhero through the use of the trickster as a figure of contradiction and boundary distortion. 2) This piece will engage the folkloric traditions of Anansi and discover ways it might exist in conversation with the American superhero ‘The Amazing Spider- Man.’ 3) This project will allow me to redefine my own relationship to my masculinity in my body. 4) This project will seek to engage other performers as active collaborators in performance. 5) This project will be staged using movement and dance, which will exist alongside narrative text and dialogue rather than beholden to these concepts. 6) This project will employ the use of comic book storytelling devices and focus on how these can be staged theatrically.

My questions based on these assumptions: 1) Why is it useful to redefine or destabilize masculinity through the superhero? What is it about the superhero and the kinds of stories they tell that invites or resists commentary in terms of social behaviours, norms and values. 2) What is it about folklore that I want to place in conversation with the mythos of the superhero? 3) Why is this important to me personally? 4) Why is it important to engage other performers? Is it necessary to have other collaborators/ performers in the room? Can this project be done as a solo performance? 5) Why is it important to tell this story through movement and dance? 6) What is it about comic books and the ways in which they tell stories that interests/ excites me? Why are these elements important to my idea of theatricality?