Pity+Fear Inspiration

There's no need to do research or extra reading to enjoy one of our shows, but our creative process often leads us down interesting paths — and we want to share some of that inspiration and research with you!

For us, the process often starts with a set of questions to explore, a couple 'anchors' that will help us bring those questions to life on stage, a structure to explore in, and then additional research that branches out in different directions. Here are some of the things we enjoyed digging into for Pity+Fear (a travesty).

Questions

• What does it mean to change, to discover new identities, or let go of old identities?
• What is the role of narrative in maintaining personal & public identity?
• What happens to the old story?

Anchors

There were a few 'seeds' that came together as inspiration for writing this show in the first place:

• The myths of Agraulos (and other characters surrounding her)
• Aristotle's Poetics (where we get the title Pity+Fear)
• Personal stories of Miriam and Josie

Structure

• “One woman” monologue/concert show, with integrated music
• At least one musician, who interacts with the monologue, breaking the "one woman" form
• Mix of external references (myth, queer theory, etc) and personal stories

Research & Inspiration

• The Rembrandt Room by Buntport Theater…
  • "…when time turns over…"
  • "When did you put the frame on your life?"
  • “Am I perfect at being real?”
• testing the mechanics (to get under, you have to lose) by Laura Ann Samuelson
  • "When I made this, I thought it would be different."
  • "I’ve just been building all of these outsides in drag as insides, without considering, on a deeper level, what an outside is actually for."
• Audre Lorde…
  • Poetry is Not a Luxury
    • "The white fathers told us, I think therefore I am; and the black mothers in each of us-the poet-whispers in our dreams, I feel therefore I can be free."
    • "For there are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt…"
  • Zami A New Spelling of My Name
• Why Mammals are Called Mammals: Gender Politics in Eighteenth-Century Natural History by Londa Schiebinger
• SweetBitter Podcast (season 1 - Sappho)
• Talia Mae Bettcher, PhD…
  • Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance
  • When Selves Have Sex: What the Phenomenology of Trans Sexuality Can Teach About Sexual Orientation
• I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter
• When Did We Become Cis? by Jules Gill-Peterson
• Truth Emerging from Her Well… by Jean-Léon Gérôme
• How the Technological Design of Facebook Homogenizes Identity and Limits Personal Representation by Benjamin Grosser
• The Republic by Plato
• Natural Kinds ("Promiscuous Realism" is a great phrase)
• Heraclitus, fragments
• Sappho
• Swimming to Cambodia by Spalding Gray & Laurie Anderson (for structure)