Performance artist and playwright Dan Fishback works out some of his anxieties about queer history, gay representation, male protagonism, and the limits of the queer imagination in this vaguely academic (but not really) captial-T 'Talk,' theoretically leading toward some thoughts (and hopefully some revelations) about queer ennui, queer depression, and how the adult queer universe can strategize to prevent queer teenage suicide. Along the way, he discusses Lady Gaga, prostalgia (pro-active nostalgia), David Halperin's How to Be Gay, and Fishback's own book-in-progress, Thirtynothing, based on his solo performance of the same name. Thirtynothing explores the legacy of gay artists who died of AIDS in the 80s and 90s, and examines the generation gap between today's young gay men and the gay men who lived through the early years of the AIDS crisis.
Biography
Dan Fishback has been writing and performing in New York City since 2003. Major works include The Material World (2012), thirtynothing (2011) and You Will Experience Silence (2009), all directed by Stephen Brackett at Dixon Place. Fishback has received grants from the Franklin Furnace Fund (2010) and the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists (2007-2009). He is also the director of the Helix Queer Performance Network, a collaboration between La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, the Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics, and BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange and he curates a wide variety of public programming, including the annual performance series La MaMa's SQUIRTS. Fishback frequently teaches workshops on performance composition and queer performance culture at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange and other institutions and universities. He blogs at thematerialworld.tumblr.com
