A Multimedia Performance
About Postmodern Monster Myths
by Alan
Reade
2002 Tour, RIP
October 13, 2001: Excerpt at
Viva
Variety, Club Fab, Guerneville, CA
February 22, 2002: Excerpt at Urban Ch@os, ATA, San
Francisco, CA
April 12, 13, and 14, 2002: Zeitgeist
Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
May 24, 2002: Western Front, Vancouver,
B.C.
September 12 and 13, 2002: MadLab Theatre, Columbus, OH
September 23, 24, and 25,
2002: Surf Reality, New
York, NY
Commissioned by Western Front, Vancouver, B.C.
"Someone is knocking on your frontal lobe now
With
tentacles, incisors, and claws.
And you're sweating and ignoring, but it's
just no use,
Because you know the little monster is yours."
In a post-9/11 world, paranoia reigns supreme. Some of it is
justified, but it is all too easy for Western society to find monsters in
every guise, from enemies of state, to child abusers, to queer people, to homeless
people--anyone who seems to threaten the status quo is put under the lens as
a "monster." But how many of these so-called monsters are real, and how many
of them are our own fears and even desires in disguise? And moreover, how many
of these so-called monsters deserve compassion versus
condemnation?
Touched by a Monster examines via
storytelling, music, and animations various monster myths at work in today's
postmodernist world--from a story about a boy who breathes fire, to a
country-fied song about a murderous movie star, to a cartoon about Santa in
Afghanistan, to a "Monster Pride Rally" that tries to bring all monsters "out
from under the bed." Of particular interest to gay audiences is Alan's
dissection of the idea that in popular film, both monsters and queer people
are consistently portrayed as tragic figures. The performance includes Alan's
comedic delivery, original music from his recently released music CD "4 Seasons in a Day,"
color slides and animations done in PowerPoint (like you've never seen
PowerPoint used before!), and some pieces performed in a monster mask. Through
Reade's timely projections on contemporary culture to his touching
confessional takes on the dark side, will you get Touched by a
Monster?!
Written Excerpt
From "My Neighborhood":
Welcome to the 21st century,
ladies and gentlemen. If, as Futurist poet Filippo Marinetti once said, "War
is the highest form of modern art," then what is happening around me in my
neighborhood must be the highest form of postmodern art: Everything
falling apart, but in its own special way. Worlds next to worlds that never
touch, owing to their drug-and-headphone-induced stupor. Police policing
only the most life-threatening incidents, making sure the wounds are only
flesh wounds while ignoring a multitude of crimes. The poor and the homeless
wandering as psychotic, garbage-stealing, shit-on-your-doorstep nomads just inches from us having dinner parties with
fresh-cut flowers and homemade gnocchi. And none of it ever connecting, ever
touching. Slow-motion missiles of poverty and drugs and self-hatred doing
their damage over years rather than seconds. And I'm watching it all fall
apart slowly from my living-room window. In bouts of decay that are vicious
and complete. Like a cancer that kills the healthy cells hourly.
I
was walking home from the BART station the other day, and a guy ran down the
steps and started yelling at me, "Sir! SIR! Did you put the snake on me?!
SIR! DID YOU PUT THE SNAKE ON ME?!!" No, I didn't put the snake on anyone.
And I'm not your long-lost friend. And I don't want to buy a token. And I'm
not your mother. And I'm not a two-headed blue unicorn. And I don't owe you
money. And I don't want to buy your crack pipe. And no, I don't want your
knife in me! Get that knife away from me! You are standing too close right
now. And I might be hallucinating like you are, but you are starting to have
one face to me. You are all starting to look alike to me. Like one monster
face on a hundred different bodies. Scarier than evil. It's the face of
total need. It's the face of total need.
Biography
Alan Reade is a writer and
performance artist whose work examines how body image, language, and mass
media are internalized. Alan's work has appeared all over the United States and Canada, and his spoken-word CD, "4 Seasons in a Day,"
was released in the spring of 2002 on Pop Squared Records. You
can find a selected history of Alan's past performances here.
Photos this page courtesy of Viva Variety/Make It So Productions,
2001.
Performance History
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For more information about Alan
Reade's work, click here to e-mail
him.
© Alan Reade, 2011