“It’s the players’ eager virtuosity that reinserts in the haggard form of history an absurd, electric kind of joy.”
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LACMA unframed conversation
“Great actors are not only great thinkers but accomplished conduits. They allow themselves to be mirrors of the times in which they live and channels to information beyond our usual apprehension.”
brooklyn rail piece
“Language, in my theater, is the art of the wail, the cracking of dead patter, the once orgasmic vowels, hard ‘r’s of an English that seals out the foreign, even as it calls up its murderous familiars.”
hedi el kholti frieze article
“Through the laughter and Whack-A-Mole madness, there was an incredible sadness to the play as Hartman evoked the shadow of AIDS, and our miserable fallen men.”
all-stars script scrap
“My God (men pose, elbows up) my homewas an ugly cuntThe rats and roaches, the limping houndsI tell ya it wasGrief(Men pose with legs bent fists down)The old men who hid in their roomsI hated themAscotsYou know the kind”Don’t want no trouble here” “Ma’s neck in the heat, damp,Reaching across the TV setTo change the… Continue reading all-stars script scrap
dope elf film
The Dope Elf: Organized Around the Erotics of Doing You In THE LAB, SAN FRANCISCO 2021 Disavowal, disgust, dissociation, delectation and death, the slime nectar of change, are the material of a performance that teeters between a theatrical work and a vigil for theater that can no longer hold our grief. Five actors from the… Continue reading dope elf film
the silver, the black, the wicked dance (script)
Out in the dark, The Raccoon and The Trapper wait. RACOONCurse food, curse life, said the thin manWho he?A malnourished manFrom the swamps?No, the treesHe come from hills afraid and cravenBut in rivers of gold he found his haven. TRAPPERShe had it all set up.I walked in.There were fish and rocksSkullsHieroglyphsShe set me up, man.Cattle,… Continue reading the silver, the black, the wicked dance (script)
Alicia Eler, “Asher Hartman’s Ritualistic Marathons,” Art21, February 2015
“Asher Hartman’s art is located at the intersection of performance, theater, and magic.”
Nancy Popp “The Juice of Woman: The Mommy Leaks the Floor. Asher Hartman at New Theater Hollywood”
“This cannot be a play, only a stuttering ceremonial joke.”
Dorothy Dubrule “The Mommy Leaks the Floor: Asher Hartman at New Theater Hollywood” 1
“Jasmine Orpilla is an aural alchemist, enlisting a junk drawer of sonic devices to expand the sparse black box theater into a wormhole.”
