Márion Talán de la Rosa
Costume Designer
Joe Salvatore
Joe Salvatore creates live performances and video projects from interview-based data, found media artifacts, and historical events. He is the creator and director of the Verbatim Performance Lab, whose performed investigations include The Kavanaugh Files, No(body) but nobody, The Grab 'Em Tapes, The Moore/Jones Challenge, The Lauer/Conway Flip, and Of a Certain Age (in collaboration with The Actors Fund).
Joe is a Clinical Associate Professor of Educational Theatre at NYU’s Steinhardt School where he teaches courses in ethnodrama, ethnoacting, new play development, and applied/community-engaged theatre. He has presented about his verbatim documentary theatre and performance practice at SXSW EDU, MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences & Sloan School of Management, Yale University School of Management’s Education Leadership Conference, University of Massachusetts, AERA, ICQI, ISEEN Winter Institute, and at Tallaght Community Arts in Dublin, Ireland.
Collaborations with writer/director Joe Salvatore:
1. Her Opponent 2017
In 2017, Joe collaborated with economist Maria Guadalupe (INSEAD-France) to create Her Opponent, a verbatim re-staging of excerpts of the 2016 U.S. presidential debates with gender-reversed casting. The Off Broadway production of the project was nominated for an Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Unique Theatrical Experience and has been covered by NPR, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter, out.com, Fox News, MSNBC, and ABC News, among others
Photo by Richard Termine
2. Ga(Y)ze - 2015
Ga(y)ze, a collaboration with Toronto-based scenographer and installation artist Troy Hourie, tackles the world of gay male “cruising” in the early 1900s compared to contemporary times in the form of a site-specific performance installation.
In the 1920s, 14th Street just east of Union Square, known then as the Rialto, was originally the theatre district and the center of gay culture. This devised, non-verbal work uses vernacular jazz and social dance of the 1920s (Lindy Hop, Charleston), to tell the story of gay subculture within New York City past and present and features choreography by Caleb Teicher. The piece premiered as part of NYU’s Forum on Site-Specific Performance in April 2015.
3. Whitall - 2015
An interactive, site-specific theatre piece commissioned by and created in collaboration with the local community to animate the historical site of the Battle of Red Bank, October 22, 1777...
4. In Real Time - 2015
In Real Time is a set of six one-act plays that come from a series of eighteen plays written throughout 2012. A mixture of funny moments and more serious considerations, each short play is inspired by a song, a news article, or a writing prompt. Three sisters argue around a box of memories, friends make important discoveries in casual circumstances, a married couple sees each other again after a long time, and even Marilyn Monroe makes an unlikely appearance.
5. Open Heart - 2010
open heart is an ethnodrama that illuminates and explores the experiences of gay male couples living in non-monogamous or “open” relationships. Thirteen couples and a therapist/researcher were interviewed, the audio recordings were coded and transcribed, and a verbatim interview theatre script emerged offering thoughts and opinions on the following questions: How do gay couples define open relationships? How do gay men in open relationships define the word “monogamy?” Why do gay couples choose to live in open relationships? What are the advantages and disadvantages of an open relationship arrangement?
The play enjoyed a sold out run at La MaMa as part of the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival and is excerpted in Johnny Saldaña's book, Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage (Left Coast Press). The full performance text is available through the digital theatre library, Indie Theater Now.
http://www.joesalvatore.com
