The series Alive from Off Center took performance into the realm of broadcast television by featuring groundbreaking work on the frontiers of comedy, dance, music, performance, and video from a new generation of international artists. This Lecture Room program features three landmark episodes.
In What Do You Mean “We?”, artist Laurie Anderson parodies celebrity culture as she joins a phony talk show in which she interviews herself about her popularity. Sister Suzie Cinema is a high-voltage 1950s-style “doo-wop” opera about adolescent love and romantic movies of the ’40s and ’50s, featuring music by 14 Karat Soul. A Personal History of the American Theater demonstrates the unique talents of celebrated actor/storyteller Spalding Gray. 1986, video, 28 minutes each episode.