BUAG Annex: Wastepaper Theatre Archive: March 20-30

The BUAG Annex is pleased to host the Wastepaper Theatre archive from March 13 to 30

Wastepaper Theatre came into being on April 25, 1973 as the project of Providence, Rhode Island-based poets and playwrights James Schevill, Edwin Honig, Keith Waldrop, and Rosmarie Waldrop. An entirely nomadic, anarchic exploration of intersecting poetry and theater, the group drew visually on the collage sensibility of the DADA and Surrealist art movements, and thematically on the sociopolitical climate of post-Vietnam and Watergate-era U.S.

This month-long laboratory will examine visual as well as literary aspects of this collaborative late 1970s creative practice and its under-recognized contribution to the history of performance art in New England. Boston-based curator and critic Randi Hopkins will work collaboratively with poets, artists, students, and the broader community to create an archive, oral history, and visual representation of Wastepaper Theatre poets, their projects, and the context in which they worked.

Audio-taped interviews, archival photographs, original collages, photocopied scripts, and domestic elements reference the original “living room” setting of the 1970s-era performances, offering contemporary audiences immersion in the Wastepaper Theatre’s ideals.  Visitors are invited to act not only as spectators but also to engage as performers and thinkers – to literally act out the material, or to sit quietly and immerse themselves in art and ideas sparked by the Wastepaper Theatre’s activities.

http://wastepapertheatre.tumblr.com/