Six Monologues 1990-2007
Edited by Caridad Svich
NoPassport Press' "Dreaming the Americas" series collects six of McMahon's solo performance scripts spanning socio-political, queer and historical contexts: "Discontents," "Scatter," "City of God," "Heel," "Honorable Discharge" and "Failure to Thrive (we small hours)." These pieces were originally performed in such venues as Dance Theater Workshop (now New York Live Arts), Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Dixon Place, Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Highways, Performance Space 122 (now Performance Space New York), P.S. 122 Field Trips, Arts Festival of Atlanta, the Los Angeles Festival, and other venues across the Americas.These works for the solo performer are arranged chronologically. These are, for the most part, the work of a young (and then not-so-young) performer/writer, initially trying to find his own voice, and then projecting that voice onto and through others.
Bio
Writer/performer Jeff McMahon is an associate professor in the School of Film, Dance and Theatre at ASU. He's had fellowships from the NEA, NY Foundation for the Arts, NY State Council on the Arts, AZ Commission on the Arts. He received an MFA in writing program from the School of the Arts, Columbia University and a BA in interdisciplinary art from SUNY/Empire State College.
Praise for this book
... a pioneering practitioner of what was once known of as 'the talking dancer' but has subsequently been subsumed under the rubric of performance art. He is an originator of the form in its post-modern incarnation, and a witness to its historical development ... Jeff's interdisciplinary approach is to use intensely personal, although highly skilled dance technique, intercut with abstract text that refers to the material world without direct realism ... re-creates the feeling or perception of being alive, without attempting to recreate it literally.
Sarah Schulman personal communication prior to publication
Jeff McMahon's performances sear us in a fever dream of poetics, politics and unflinching personal witness. His fierce collision of social texts and equal opportunity 'j'accuse' claims a rigorous performance vision that unsparingly unpacks society and self. From a child's peering over the backseat of his grandmother's car driving thru L.A., to an unblinking witness to 9/11 McMahon takes us on a wild journey thru our times. Buckle your seat belt and dare to ride shotgun as you turn the pages of this powerful collection.
Tim Miller back cover blurb
