While re-enactment has long been a popular art, it has entered performance art in two ways: through site-specific performances such as the ones orchestrated by Mike Pearson or David Levine, which often explore the history of a place; and the re-enactment of performance art, as in the recent case of Marina Abramovic. In both cases, performance art and theater intersect in unexpected ways. I confront these re-enactments with a brief discussion of the New Globe, where historical reconstruction provides the frame for the established art of theatrical revival.

Martin Puchner is Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama and of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. After studying philosophy, history, and literature at the University of Konstanz, the Università di Bologna, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine, he earned a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1998. He taught English and comparative literature at Columbia University from 1998 until 2010, before moving to Harvard University in the summer of 2010.

This event has been made possible by The Center for Visual and Performance Studies.
For more information on this speaker series please see our website: http://artsresearch.ucsc.edu/vps/reenactment

Contact Jenna Purcell at vpsucsc@gmail.com