stage
Holly Hughes
The Dog and Pony Show (Bring Your Own Pony)
Published: April 27, 2011
Holly Hughes
The Dog and Pony Show (Bring Your Own Pony)
Presented by Iron Crow Theatre April 29-May 1 at the GLBT Community Center of Baltimore's Pride in the Arts Space
When performance artist visited Holly Hughes came to the Theatre Project in February 2000, the sting of the 1990s was still fresh. She—along with Karen Finley, John Fleck, and Tim Miller—had spent the better part of the '90s battling the Religious Right, Congressional Republicans, and even then National Endowment of the Arts Chairperson John Frohnmayer. After all, NEA funding of individual artists such as the NEA Four—and artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano—in the late 1980s and early 1990s created the imposition of a so-called "decency standard" in arts funding and a political climate that featured Pat Buchanan admonishing, "There is a religious was going on in this country, a cultural war as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself" at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston.
The NEA Four fought back, eventually arguing their case before the Supreme Court, which she turned into Preaching to the Perverted: A Tour of the Dark Side of Democracy, another one of her autobiographical monologues qua seriocomic explorations of the country and culture at large. It's the sort of incorporating the personal into the creative process that she has been teaching her students at the University of Michigan for almost a decade.
"Holly made us write down our weird performance fantasies and then made us perform them," writes Erin Markey via e-mail. Markey is a performance artist/actress with her own inimitable presence who studied under Hughes.
"She would give us a fictional billion dollar budget," Markey continues. "Every single student in her classes would come up with the most brilliant stuff, because it was coming from a place of desire—from wanting to do something or be something ridiculous, impossible, and extravagant. Figuring out hilarious and moving ways to approximate hiring Cher and seven stunt elements and then executing these fantasies was completely transformative. We didn't need a billion dollars. The more she gave me opportunities to articulate my weird impulses, the more comfortable I became operating from that place instinctively and improvisationally onstage. That's the way she taught us to trust ourselves."
> Email Bret McCabe
To comment you must first create a profile and sign-in with a verified DISQUS account or social network ID. Sign up here.
Comments in violation of the rules will be denied, and repeat violators will be banned. Please help police the community by flagging offensive comments for our moderators to review. By posting a comment, you agree to our full terms and conditions. Click here to read terms and conditions.
