Lecture Notes (c)

The more theatre expands, the more it decides to become avant garde, the more it removes itself from the proscenium arch...the weirder it gets.

-at what point does it stop being Theatre?
-at what point does it stop being Entertainment?

Is this a game, or a play? Follow the directions and you'll be rewarded with the end.

Arrogance, bourgeois mentalities--theatre with narrative is low--theatre people pay to see is common, therefore inferior. But nobody pays to come to experimental weirdness, so keep your day job.

theatre of games. performance can be packaged up and sent out all over the world--can you expose the puppeteer if the puppeteer is nowhere to be found?

-it's ridiculous, but if you agree to play along, is it fun?

It will be there when you're gone--how will it work then?

Open-ended gaming like the Sims, Grand Theft Auto, non-competitive participation--geocacheing, scavenger hunts and the like

1st person voice. How is this ethical? Is it a good idea to have people talking of and about themselves--especially non-actors? This should not be taken lightly.
-What is the impact of forcing someone's hand? Do the experience the side-effects or after-effects of saying "me?" Can it be harmful?
-Is it a documentary or a performance?
-Could this become a way to take over the world?

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Why can't gay men just be gay men without being caught up in the femininity of being penetrated? I DO NOT DEFINE MYSELF THROUGH SEXUAL PENETRATION. I don't define myself through/of/in relation to/because of my vagina. It's an organ. It's part of my body, like my pancreas. I have sex the way I have sex. I eat a sandwich the way I eat a sandwich. The fact that I have vaginal sex with a man does not define me as myself, or my femininity. I will not be marginalized by gay men with no sexual identity. Gay male sexual identity is just that--gay male. No gay man should feel the need or desire to identify with one or another heterosexual identity, as he doesn't have one. It's an independent entity. They should feel proud of that. But no, instead they piggyback onto someone else's -ism, try to redefine the asshole as the fucking womb. I DON'T HAVE A WOMB. I have a uterus. It's an organ. Not a home. It does not fill me with a sense of comfort or warmth. It is a monthly bio-hazard. A regular inconvenience. It gives me pain because when the cervix is obstructed it constricts blood flow to the area because human evolution has reached a cul-de-sac, not because it inspires in me any great longing for fucking motherhood or completion through connection to the penis.

I recognize biology and psychology are linked inseparably by endocrinology--I have felt on more than one occasion the moment that I metabolized a hunger-released chemical and grew irrationally, violently angry. That's how I react to it, and primal and uncontrolled as that may be, it's part of my physiology. I know the pain and nausea of a sudden adrenalin rush, and the relief that comes after when it turns out to have been a false alarm. I've reached a point in my self-awareness that when I feel bad for no social or easily-identifiable interpersonal reason, I have the ability to retreat into my mind and body to figure out what has led to this feeling. Aha, I'm hungry. Oh, my leg hurts and I've been ignoring it. Oh, fuck, it's that time of the goddamn month. Yes, my reproductive bits do have control over my body and mind. Yes, the fact that I'm female does play a part in who I am. But I refuse to define myself by that. Those urges, those pains, those impulses and emotions and outbursts aren't me. They're a much deeper, animal part of my brain that doesn't give a wet slap about me, who I've decided to be. So I do my best to live around it. Think outside of the female. Think away from the gender. Think only in the relevant. That's not masculine. I only appreciate the emotions and thoughts that come from my conscious mind--the ones that are mine, not those of the species.