VPL presents at American Alliance for Theatre and Education conference in NYC

Members of the Verbatim Performance Lab presented at the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE) conference on Sunday, August 4, in New York City.

In a panel discussion entitled “The Kavanaugh Files: Investigating Gender Through Verbatim Performance,” VPL Associate Director Keith R. Huff and affiliated artists Heleya de Barros, Analisa Gutierrez, Scott Michael Morales, Joe Salvatore, and Robert Thaxton-Stevenson shared about the processes used to create The Kavanaugh Files, and the performers shared insights and discoveries that they had from working on VPL’s gender-flipped versions of excerpts from the hearings.

As a way in to the discussion, participants were given tweets from on or around September 27, 2018, the date of the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings featuring Christine Blasey Ford and Brett Kavanaugh and were then asked to rewrite the tweets using non-gendered language or language that inverted the gender referenced in the tweets. After sharing the outcomes, participants were asked to reflect on how the shift in language affected the perceived impact of the tweets.

The discussion included excerpts from the original televised hearings and VPL’s versions, and these prompted a robust conversation between the panelists and participants.

We’re grateful to AATE for the chance to share our work and look forward to returning for future conferences in the years to come.

LEFT TO RIGHT: ROBERT THAXTON-STEVENSON, Keith R. Huff, Heleya de Barros, Analisa Gutierrez, Scott Michael Morales, & Joe Salvatore

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