1/6/2023 0 Comments Houdini protocolIn particular, I shall explore Rukeyser’s incorporation of language from the 1926 Congressional Judiciary Subcommittee hearings on fortune telling-an important and unexplored instance of her investigation into the possibilities of documentary poetics. In this talk, I shall present archival traces of Rukeyser’s process, drawing from her proposals, plans, correspondence, research, and drafts from the 1940s through the mid 1970s. This “musical with a ferocious play inside” is a rich site from which to explore Rukeyser’s ongoing interrogation into the “meeting-places” between symbol and fact, myth and the concrete details of existence, as they are put into motion in the “whole lives” of individuals. Muriel Rukeyser spent four decades researching, imagining, writing, pitching, and rewriting the text that became Houdini, which was performed as a play only once, in 1973, with Christopher Walken in the title role. Stefania Heim Myth, Fact, and the ‘Stairway Between’: Muriel Rukeyser’s Houdini She provides editorial services, manuscript development and consultations, and coaching to poets and writers. Jan Freeman is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Blue Structure (Calypso Editions), and she is co-editor of Sisters: An Anthology. Poems from her manuscript in progress, Mobius, are forthcoming or recently appeared in Barrow Street, The Brooklyn Rail, North American Review, Plume, and Poetry. She is a 2020–2022 Associate at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center and recipient of the Spiral Shell Fellowship at the Virginia Center for Creative Art’s Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France. Jan founded Paris Press (now housed at Wesleyan University Press) in 1996 to bring back into print Muriel Rukeyser’s The Life of Poetry. Paris Press also published Rukeyser’s Houdini: A Musical and The Orgy. Jan teaches at the MASS MoCA Ekphrastic Poetry Retreats and Writing Through Nature and Art Poetry Workshops. I will also address Rukeyser’s themes of freedom and imprisonment, truth and illusion, and the body in Houdini and in her poems that first captivated me as a young lesbian poet. In my presentation I will speak about my discovery of Houdini: A Musical, the decision to publish the verse drama through Paris Press, the journey of transforming the manuscript housed at the Library of Congress into a published book, and bringing the text to the attention of readers. Jan Freeman “Let me see, let me feel, let me know what is real”: Publishing Houdini, A Musical This event will also be live streamed for those who cannot attend in person: Sponberg Theatre, 124 Judy Sturgis Hill Building, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197 ( Parkingand Covid Protocol). #Houdini protocol free#Theater Information All performances free and open to the public. We thank Kitty Graham for performance permission.Īll performance are free and open to the publicĮdited and introduced by Jan Freeman, Houdini was orginally published by Paris Press and is currently available at Wesleyan University Press. These events will be followed by conversations between the director, actors, and audience.ĭirected by EMU Theatre Professor Lee Stille, Rukeyser’s Houdini will be performed by the talented actors of EMU’s Theatre Program. In collaboration with YpsiWrites, a writing-focused non-profit serving the Ypsilanti area, this event will be accompanied by a Poetry Wall and other activities geared toward a younger Southeast Michigan audience. 11am (EST) Webinar about Rukeyser and Houdini with Jan Freeman, Stefania Heim, and Houdini expert Matthew Solomon. (This event will also be live streamed for audiences unable to attend in person). Sponberg Theatre, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI. #Houdini protocol archive#The Muriel Rukeyser Living Archive is organizing four staged readings of Rukeyser’s musical Houdini, with the support of the Michigan Humanities (an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities), EMU’s Center for Jewish Studies, the English Department, and YpsiWrites:
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