CONTEMPORARY performers who write their own material seldom escape the trap of having written their own material. The impulse to perform— to write with your body in front of others—is different from the push it takes to author a script, which requires that you dream alone. A number of monologuists, including Wallace Shawn, Spalding Gray, Karen Finley, and Anna Deavere Smith, started producing diverse, substantial work decades ago, but many of the younger performers who’ve tried to follow suit have failed to understand that one’s “I” is rarely enough—or, in some cases, can be entirely too much. Often, writerperformers confuse the actor’s desire to be seen, to be “exposed” before an audience, with expository writing that’s shapeless because it insists on telling all. This is solipsism, not theatre (or, at…
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The New Yorker (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 7, 2016