DiverseWorks to Welcome Artist Liz Magic Laser to Houston, 2/5-6

DiverseWorks has commissioned acclaimed New York-based artist Liz Magic Laser to create a new performance and exhibition, which will open in April. Titled Tell Me What You Want to Hear, the project enlists the participation of local political figures, news media personalities, and a live audience to re-imagine the newsmaking process and the public's relationship to it.

Catch Laser this week while she's in town working on Tell Me What You Want to Hear -- she'll be at Rice Media Center on Tuesday and DiverseWorks on Wednesday!

Tuesday, February 5, 7 pm
PERFORMING AUTHENTICITY BY LIZ MAGIC LASER
Rice Cinema Film Auditorium, Rice Media Center
(at the corner of University Blvd. and Stockton, entrance #8 on the Rice University Campus)

Laser will give a free public talk as part of the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts at Rice University's The Arts in the Humanities Lecture Series, 2013.

Wednesday, February 6, 7:15 pm
LIZ MAGIC LASER SCREENS I FEEL YOUR PAIN
DiverseWorks, 4102 Fannin
Part of DWOW (DiverseWorks on Wednesdays) and preceded by a reception

I Feel Your Pain, created for Performa 11, restaged America's recent political contests as a romantic drama. Drawing on a variety of agitprop theater tactics, particularly the Russian Constructivist idea of a "living newspaper," the performance examined how emotion is used to establish authenticity on America's political stage.

Staged in a movie theater, I Feel Your Pain took place simultaneously in the midst of the audience and on the cinema's screen. Eight actors performed a sequence of scenes that traced the progression of a romantic relationship in adapted dialogues taken from political interviews and press conferences with Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, amongst others. Borrowing elements from historic "living newspaper" productions, the performance featured live voice-overs, pantomime fight scenes, and mute commentaries by a clown. As the actors performed, live film from two cinematographers in the audience was projected onto the screen as a continuous feed, with Laser acting as a real-time editor, choosing camera angles for the audience to see.

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