Performance with costume, popcorn kernels, paper popcorn cups

McKeldin Square Park/Occupy Baltimore
Inner Harbour
Baltimore, MD
Duration: Approximately 2 hours

The Brick Wall at the Back of the Theatre is a performance that plays with character and personal transformation. Inspired by protest theatre, my observations as a visitor in Baltimore and also the work of Chicago performance troupe Goat Island, I decided to become “The Popcorn Lady,” a young movie theatre worker who recently lost her job. To the viewer, it is supposed to be unclear as to whether or not “The Popcorn Lady” is from the present or found her way in present from the late 1940s or early 1950s. In the performance, my character laments the loss of her job, and reveals a not-so-cryptic message to the audience on behalf of theatre “advertisers.”

The text used in this piece is a small part of longer quote by the Baltimore-born Frank Zappa: “The illusion of freedom will continue until it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes to expensive to maintain, they will take down then scenery, pull down the curtains, (...) and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."

At the root of this performance are ideas about labour, capitalism and loss. I performed a version of this piece at McKeldin Park during the first week of Occupy Baltimore, spelling out an abridged version of the complete Zappa quote in costume.