TBA:06 LECTURE

MARK RUSSELL

The Bridge

Mark Russell did not submit a proper bio. He was working on his other producing projects. He was playing trains with his son. He was whispering sweet nothings to his wife. He was working on Under the Radar, a festival that takes place in January at New York’s Public Theater. He was dreaming of his early days in Minnesota, South Dakota, Ohio, Indiana and Texas riding around in the back of cars. He was looking at a picture he took from his first trip to Poland to work with Grotowski. He was remembering his long youth running Performance Space 122 for 20 years. He was thinking of all of his artist friends that are now gone and how he misses them and their amazing performances. He was on the phone to the staff of PICA. He was reading email. He was trying to think of an interesting way to do a bio but not do one. He was getting on a plane. He was pontificating on a panel titled “blowing up the theater.” He was looking at the last extant copy of his book Out of Character. He was thinking about writing something again. He was missing Portland. He was lost in a daydream of how the Festival might look once it started. He was thinking "what is it I really do?" He was coming to the knowledge that he makes matches between audiences and artists. He was thinking how great it is when that works, when sparks happen. He was thinking this is what he has searched for all his life, these flashing moments. He was thinking how odd it is that everyone knows people write their own bios but you have to take on this weird third person voice. He was thinking "is this more pretentious than one of those bios?" He was thinking how much he hates cute things and how this might qualify as one of them.

Mark Russell will talk about his own experience of the history of performance and its future. Writer Matthew Stadler may ask some questions. We will see what happens.