SyndicateMizzou Video Podcast

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Leslie Perna - Drawn to performance

Wed, 17 May 2006 21:26:14 GMT

Perna found herself drawn to viola performance, and especially chamber music, because of the collaborative and democratic nature of the music-making process. The Esterhazy Quartet, the string quartet with whom Perna performs chamber music, focuses particularly on work from contemporary living composers. The Esterhazy Quartet established residency at the Berklee College of Music in Boston six years ago, where they experience the magic of the collaborative process while working with the best student composers.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Leslie Perna - The Missouri String Project

Wed, 17 May 2006 16:20:03 GMT

The Missouri String Project, which Perna directs, provides outreach to the community and valuable teaching experience for music majors.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Leslie Perna - Viola Performance

Wed, 17 May 2006 21:26:45 GMT

Watch Perna in a short viola performance.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Albert Devlin - Performances of Devlin's Letters

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:41:56 GMT

Devlin disscusses various performances of his works by actors such as Sean Leonard and Richard Thomas.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Albert Devlin - More on the Performances of Devlin's Work

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:42:39 GMT

Devlin continues to discuss performances of Tennessee Williams' letters and how Steve Lawson of New Your City Center scripted and staged them.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Albert Devlin - Sean Leonard as Tennessee Williams

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:43:11 GMT

Devlin discusses how an accomplished actor such as Sean Leonard can bring the letters of Tennessee Williams to life.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Jim Miller - Miller reads the letters of Tennessee Williams

Tue, 30 May 2006 17:07:41 GMT

MIller talks about how he got involved in the performance of the letters of Tennessee Williams.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Jim Miller - Miller discusses his own performances

Wed, 31 May 2006 14:33:42 GMT

Miller discusses his changes in roles over the years, including his recent role as Tennessee Williams.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Jim Miller - The Midwest likes stories

Wed, 31 May 2006 14:35:52 GMT

Miller discusses how he chooses a production and what audiences seem to like the most.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Jim Miller - Miller performs Tennessee Williams

Wed, 31 May 2006 15:17:23 GMT

Miller performs eight short pieces of Tennessee Williams letters as edited by Albert Develin, Professor of English. Miller is accompanied by singer and professional actress, Jennifer Gray.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: M. Heather Carver - Teaching theatre at Mizzou

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:56:49 GMT

Heather Carver describes herself as “a performance studies artist/scholar,” someone who investigates an issue through performance—“so we study autobiography, and we do autobiographical performance.” Carver teaches several kinds of creative writing, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, in adaptation and performance of literature for theatre and the screen. She also co-directs the Writing for Performance Program, which helps students adapt different kinds of writing for the stage or screen, including poetry, short stories, autobiography, or ethnography. And Carver serves as creator and artistic director of the Life and Literature Performance series to showcase original and adapted work by MU students for the stage.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: M. Heather Carver - Performative writing

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:57:05 GMT

Performative writing is a way of writing about performance that engages the reader as one would engage the audience when performing in theatre: “So instead of performing over _here_ and then writing about it over _there_, writing about the work as if the reader were not involved in any kind of audience relationship, performative writing takes the combination of audience, performer, and text and moves that into the writing of performance.” By involving those different levels, Carver suggests, writing “is more accessible to people.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: M. Heather Carver - “Methodology of the Heart”

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:41:50 GMT

In her article, "Methodology of the Heart," Carver does several things to draw attention to writing itself as performance: “I was trying to expose the nature of the self in this writing. That’s really what it’s about – trying to make our experiences more raw, more real for the reader.” While this kind of writing takes a lot of courage, because it leaves the writer vulnerable and exposed, Carver adds that “it also takes a sense of play; play is such an important part of performance.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: M. Heather Carver - Auto-performance

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:57:42 GMT

One of Carver’s research areas involves “auto-performance”—a style that “brings the self to task in writing and in performance.” Whether this involves the autobiography or autoethnography, “performative writing is very much a part of it, because you’re writing about your_self_.” Rather than taking other people’s perspectives and points of view, Carver tries to make clear her position from the get-go: “What I try to do in my performative writing is say, ‘this is about me,’… Because I really just want to write about what I’m experiencing for people to understand as a way of opening the conversation.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: M. Heather Carver - The Troubling Violence Performance Project

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:58:01 GMT

With her background interest in women’s health, it was no surprise to find Carver collaborating with Elaine Lawless, MU Professor of English. After adapting some of the survivor stories for performance, in 2003 they formed the Troubling Violence Performance Project “to create a venue for people to communicate about intimate partner violence.” While they began performing stories from Lawless’ book, the stories soon emerged from elsewhere: “People starting coming up to us after the performances and asking if they could give us their stories,” many of which were then incorporated into subsequent performances. “If one out of every four women likely to suffer some kind of intimate partner abuse, then we need to really speak out. We don’t think we’re going to come in and perform and all violence is going to end. We just know that if people don’t talk about it…it’s going to be swept under the carpet.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: M. Heather Carver - Booby Prize, an ever-evolving comedy about breast cancer

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:58:21 GMT

Since October of 2006, Carver has been developing _Booby Prize_, a comedy about the unfunny subject of breast cancer. “It’s a one-woman show featuring me [laughs],” and how she was “lucky” to be the one of every seven women to get the disease. Through _Booby Prize_, which is ever evolving, Carver is able to combine her interest in social activism, women’s health, and autobiography: “I decided that I _could_ have breast cancer and still have a sense of humor, and still do my work. And so that’s when _Booby Prize_, you know, became born, the idea that—unfortunately—I won the prize. I won the Booby Prize, which you don’t want to win, you don’t want to be the 1 out of 7 who wins, but I won, and so that’s how I start off the performance.” Much of the performance features Carver performing actual stories that happened to her, infusing humor into the reality of her situation. At the conclusion of _Booby Prize_, Carver warns the audience against expecting closure and a happy ending. Despite the clean bill of health at her last medical checkup, the possibility of cancer returning lingers on, and so Carver reminds the audience, “I don’t have a pretty ending; my ending is still up in the air.” Among audience members, Carver has observed not only laughter and tears, as might be expected, but “people doing both at the same time, and not quite knowing what to do about it.” The thread that runs through _Booby Prize_—like Carver’s other scholarly and creative projects—is storytelling. Some of the stories are painful, and some are funny. Either way, Carver always tries “to keep it raw.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: SyndicateMizzou - How do research and creative activity intersect with teaching?

Tue, 06 May 2008 15:44:43 GMT

In this segment, faculty members talk about how their research and creative activity contribute to better teaching, as well as the relationship between these two aspects of their work. Frequently, the two endeavors intersect, profitting both. Carmen Chicone remarks, “If you are actively involved in your subject, you’re bound to be a much better teacher.”