Alex Tatarsky in conversation with Kate Bredeson

( New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA / Portland, OR)

DESCRIPTION

TBA artist Alex Tatarsky joins theatre historian Kate Bredeson for a conversation about Sad Boys in Harpy Land.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Called a “hilarious, finely tuned absurdist” by Theatre Jones and “outrageous and profane" by The New York Times, Alex Tatarsky makes performances in the uncomfortable in-between zone of comedy, dance-theater, performance art, and deluded rant—sometimes with songs. Tatarsky experienced fleeting fame as Andy Kaufman’s daughter and used to perform as a mound of dirt. Playing with perceptions of language and narrative structure, their live performances are highly responsive to venue and audience, often breaking the fourth wall and embracing humor to reveal vulnerability and humanity. Venues include La Mama Experimental Theater Club, The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, Playwrights Horizons, The Kitchen, Judson Memorial Church, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and many bars and basements. As curatorial fellow at The Poetry Project, they organized a series on the poetics of rot. Research interests include bootlegs, hellscapes, and compost.  https://tatarsky.biz/

Kate Bredeson (she/her) is a theatre historian, translator, dramaturg, and director. Her project as a scholar and artist is to research, document, and practice the ways in which performance can be a tool for radical activism and protest. She has published seven books with Northwestern University Press: The Diaries of Judith Malina, volumes 1-4 (2026); The Inheritor, co-translated with Thalia Wolff (2024); Occupying the Stage: The Theater of May ’68 (2018), and the forthcoming Lamp Back: Plays and Other Grievances by Anthony Hudson, for which she is editor (2026). Bredeson is Professor of Theatre at Reed College.

Support

Supported in part by the Departments of Theatre and Russian at Reed College and Reed College’s Wolfe Fund and Division of the Arts funds.