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• One-on-one with performance artist Rebecca Nagle

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Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center

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Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center »
Address: 202 S. Broadway Ave. Urbana, IL 61801
Phone: (217) 344-8820
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Rebecca Nagle brings her show, “A Dozen Things I Want to do on Stage,” to Champaign-Urbana this Thursday, Jan. 21. The show, based on the format of a 1920s political cabaret, will be performed at the Independent Media Center in downtown Urbana at 8 p.m. The show offers everything from contortion and burlesque to more traditional theatrical performance. This week, ,buzz spoke with Rebecca to find out more about her art and what we can expect from her performance.

buzz: Where did the inspiration for this show come from?

RN: I started developing the piece about a year ago, doing a lot of writing and performing parts of it in once-a-month workshops. From there, I brainstormed different ideas and figured out the order, but a lot of the ideas came from the language. I’ve been interested in doing more traditional 1970s feminist work and also contortion and burlesque; I wanted to combine them. I also wanted to try different ways to make the show interactive. The cabaret format was popular in Europe in the ‘20s, but neo-cabaret nowadays is as politically aware as its origins. I wanted to do something that was more radical, like traditional cabaret, but also make it modern, dealing with themes like sexuality, gender, power and race.

buzz: What are some of the more unique things we can expect to see in the show?

RN: There are a lot of different types of the performance — contortion, burlesque — and then more theatrical parts. For example, one of the characters speaks only in limerick, in iambic pentameter. There’s storytelling, comedy, and the show really creates a relationship with the audience through interaction and involvement. I let people ask me questions, and I answer them honestly and also will act out someone’s fantasy.

buzz: What is the overall message of the show?

RN: There are a lot of things I want people to think about, but the main thing is how power functions. Often people think it’s so simplistic — that the people in power have control over those who aren’t — but it’s really much more nuanced and complicated. In the show, power is constantly being negotiated, and the shifts are more transparent. The other main message is about performance. People tend to take the world and divide it into categories of art and theatre versus real life, which is supposed to be genuine and authentic. My goal is to mess with the boundaries between the two and make people think differently about separating the two. I want people to be able to take what they see on stage and apply it elsewhere in their lives.

buzz: Can you tell us a little about your background in theatre?

RN: I grew up in Kansas, went to art school and worked in the visual arts doing video work. Toward the end of college I got more into community artwork and performance. I’ve always been pursuing a creative something. The format just changes depending what I’m interested in, whether its sculpture or the internet, but it’s usually interactive, and I often focus on the themes of the body, feminism and power.