Lulu

Automata, Los Angeles

with Liz Toonkel with Amanda Jane Shank

This multi-platform performance adapts Frank Wedekind play Lulu into a series of episodes that explore sexuality, intimacy and domestic locations. Different each time, Lulu offers a voyeuristic access to the bedrooms of women across Los Angeles.

We worked with each performer to respond to the iconic Lulu play, and create individual pieces that were simultaneously autobiographical, pedestrian and theatrical. The performances took place across Los Angeles in the women’s bedrooms, for an intimate invited audience. Each performance also functioned as a staged photo shoot, creating narrative photo-documentation that further explores, and upends the male gaze.

We presented the body of work as a performance and installation at Automata.

Collaborating performers: Erica Bitton, Gracie Devito, Nicole Disson, Heather Hewko, Brittany Lau, Kestrel Leah, Jennie Liu, Tyree Marshall, Gabriella Rhodeen, Megan Rippey, Tamara Rosenblum

photos by Amanda Jane Shank