MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program
I have been occupied with the creation of images and the birth of performances for the past 18 years. My work can be characterized in a variety of ways - I alternately call myself director, producer, photographer, educator, dramaturg, administrator, observer, collaborator Because I believe it encompasses and informs all of the others, one label has recently stepped to the fore: Facilitator.
My formal educational background is in the traditional theater (where I spent many years believing I wanted to work my way up in the regional theater system to become one of the rare female artistic directors). Even as I pursued a 'career' in the heater, I was always strangely drawn to photography. I took photographs compulsively in college. I believe this avocation helped me see the stage in a kind of storyboard format, and I strive to use the compositional integrity of static images to shape both theme and narrative.
While completing my M.F.A. in stage directing, I concentrated heavily on the heightened language of Shakespeare and had the privilege to observe and work with Michael Langham. During this time I found inspiration in the epic, mythic, larger than life stories of Shakespeare, Racine, Euripides, Webster - where stylization and theatricality were inherent to the structure of the work, where images could be boldly exaggerated. It is through my investigations of Shakespeare that I began to develop an enthusiasm for layering and contradictions among the visual, textual and performative elements of a single production.
Perhaps because of the nature of "directing", as an artist, I require collaboration. All of my work has been built in close partnership with others; I find it impossible to claim anything I have done as entirely my own. (I suppose that even the photographic images I have captured are dependent in some way upon the cooperation of the world around me.) My greatest creative energy comes when there are many voices contributing, and I am at my best when I am able to forge these often diverse practices into a single yet open vision.
My current passion lies in the changing nature of contemporary performance, where I apply both my facilitative skills and the crafts of traditional theater to multidisciplinary performance experiments. I believe in beginnings, middles and ends - though not necessarily in that order. I am endlessly fascinated by the myriad ways in which 'stories' can be told. I've worked closely with playwrights and performance creators as a director of readings, works-in-progress and first productions. From 1999 through 2003, I served as the Artistic and Producing Director for 3 Legged Race New Theater & Performance, an organization dedicated to the acceleration of invention in new performance. Named "Best Theater for New Work 2002" (City Pages Arts Weekly) and honored by the Minneapolis Star Tribune for "Outstanding Experimental Performance 2003", 3LR earned a reputation for unexpected artistic commitments, vanguard programming and unusual approaches to merging eclectic performance disciplines.
Outwardly, my leadership of 3LR focused on commissioning and developing experimental works poised at the crossroads of live performance disciplines (including dance, circus arts, puppetry/object theater, performance art and their combinations). Over five years, I produced more than 75 new works by diverse artists from across the country including Kira Obolensky, Irve Dell, Laurie Carlos, Daniel Alexander Jones, Danny Buraczeski, Christopher Bayes, David Neumann, Stacy Dawson, LAVA, Brian Brooks Moving Company, Heather Henson and Michael Sommers. Working alongside such an incredible range of creative personalities and aesthetics, I became interested in how it is that artists make good work. What are the tools, the resources, the support systems and the environment that allow for creativity to flourish? What does this artist need that is different from what that artist needs? What makes a dynamic process? About art and art making, I believe that: Collaboration and constant exposure to new people keeps work fresh, present and alive; Risk and the failures that inevitably go along with it are a necessity; Experimentation with form, and particularly with methods that are beyond one's comfort zone, lead to incredible places. Both as a producer and when working with students at all levels, these are the issues I now consider most.
Lately, my creative explorations have begun to shift toward puppet/object theater and the animation of objects. I commissioned, produced and directed ira Obolensky's evening length puppet work Quick Silver, and am currently involved in developing it for touring.
Other points of interest - I am an affiliate faculty member at the University of Minnesota where I teach "creating the performance" and "dance production" to undergraduate theater and dance majors. I teach motorcycle-iding skills at community colleges and have become enchanted with the idea of 'motorcycle culture'. I am a committed partner, a lover of dogs, a new homeowner, a sometimes gardener and an aspiring chef.
Educational Background: MFA, Stage Directing, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; BA Evergreen State College with emphasis in Performance and English.
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Bonnie Schock, MFA