New York Theater Artist
You Never Get to Make Out
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Mathers Theatre – 7:00 p.m.
Dan Fishback is queer and Jewish and can’t tell the difference between the two. In his new talk, “You Never Get To Make Out,” the performance artist wonders why life in the shadow of death and destruction is so genuinely hilarious. Through a combination of humorous anecdotes and serious intellectual analysis, Fishback paints a portrait of post-Holocaust, post-80s-AIDS anxiety in an age of irony and detachment. Based largely on his new play, “You Will Experience Silence,” Fishback created this informal talk as a way to casually discuss philosophical issues without the dramatic pretenses of character, set design and heavy lighting equipment. Called “a cross between Woody Allen and Karen Finley,” his boisterous presence serves as a bridge between contemporary indie sensibility and classic Jewish humor.
Dan Fishback has been making surreal, political queer theater in NYC since 2003. His current work is being supported by the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists. His past theater projects have been performed at Galapagos Art Space, Dixon Place, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and many other New York venues. In 2007, he sat on the review panel of the Foundation for Jewish Culture’s New Jewish Theater Projects grant. Fishback’s writing has been published nationally, including an essay in “Mentsh: On Being Jewish and Queer” (Alyson Books, 2004). Fishback’s band, Cheese On Bread, has toured Europe and North America, and recently released their new album, The Search for Colonel Mustard, in the United States and Japan. As a solo artist, he has released several recordings, and will drop his new full length studio album, Mammal, in 2009. He has shared stages with Ani Difranco and Kimya Dawson as part of the punk dance troupe Underthrust.
Co-sponsored by the Office of Institutional and Diversity Initiatives, English Department, and Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life.
Suggested Readings
“The Elusive Embrace” by Daniel Mendelsohn
“Close to the Knives” by David Wojnarowicz
“The Pleasure of the Text” by Roland Barthes