/news-archive/tag/antonin-artaud/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Wed, 01 May 2019 22:19:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2019/05/01/theater-of-cruelty/ Wed, 01 May 2019 22:19:31 +0000 /news/?p=74182 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student explores 鈥渢heater of cruelty鈥�]]> 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock theater major Selena Gordon has performed in musicals, plays, and even national films, but this semester she worked to create a performance of a different kind – one meant to awaken her audiences鈥� unexpressed emotions. Gordon spent this semester creating 鈥淲ake-up!鈥� – a performance that uses overbearing sensory aspects, such as lights, sound, and gestures to stir emotions. 聽 鈥淚 wanted to make the audience confront issues that society tends to shy away from or ignore because they鈥檙e too difficult to talk about,鈥� she said. 鈥淪uch things include racism, sexual assault, gun control, mental illness, abuse, discrimination in all of its forms, and the political state of the country today.鈥� It鈥檚 all part of a 鈥渢heater of cruelty鈥� experience that Gordon created and debuted at the Fringe Festival on campus in April. Recorded excerpts from the performance also were part of Gordon’s poster presentation at the Research and Creative Works Expo on April 18 in the Jack Stephens Center. Gordon, a Fort Smith native, is a member of the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps. During her time at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, she has participated in Department of Theatre Arts and Dance productions, including 鈥淭he All Night Strut鈥� in 2017 and 鈥淎s You Like It鈥� in 2018. In 2017, Gordon also landed an acting job in the faith-based film 鈥淕od鈥檚 Not Dead 3,鈥� which was filmed in central Arkansas. Last fall, Gordon was one of about 100 undergraduates who received up to a $1,000 grant to conduct original research, creative works, and community service projects this semester as part of the Signature Experience Awards program created by Chancellor Andrew Rogerson. The awards – now in their second year – are designed to foster research and creative works among undergraduate students. Gordon proposed a project in which she would apply the theories of French dramatist Antonin Artaud, which she studied in Lawrence Smith鈥檚 Dramatic Criticism and Theory class, to a script she had written. Smith served as Gordon鈥檚 faculty mentor for the project. 鈥淚 learned about Antonin Artaud, who is the mastermind behind the idea (of theatre of cruelty), and I was instantly captured by his life and his theories,鈥� she said. 鈥淎rtaud believed that theatre had become too focused on words and that we had trapped ourselves in this box of repetitive works that had already been seen before and had been done for too many years. He wanted new works that moved people, that linked to the present world. His answer for escaping this loop was a theatre of cruelty.鈥� Selena Gordon, center, presents her “Theater of Cruelty” project to a judge during the Research and Creative Works Expo on April 18, 2019. Photo by Benjamin Krain  ]]>