ARCHIVE SEASON 20 | November 2007

review

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The Neovagina Monologues
Written and performed by Sandy Stone | Presented by the VORTEX

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Neovagina, the medical term for a surgically constructed vagina, is a troubled postmodern idea which, although firmly grounded in the realities of bodies and lived experience, until quite recently could only speak in the languages of law, medicine or technology -- and at present seems to have an awful lot to say.

VORTEX presents the Austin performance debut of internationally renowned performer and scholar Sandy Stone in her ground-breaking piece, The Neovagina Monologues. Inspired by the work of Eve Ensler and Spalding Grey.

The Neovagina Monologues is the moving and powerful culmination of the "Theoryperformance" theater project Stone has toured in over twenty countries throughout Europe, Asia, Scandinavia, North America, and the Southern Hemisphere. It most recently featured at "Creative Forces: Women, Art, Science", the 2007 Mid-Atlantic Women’s Studies Association national conference.

Allucquére Rosanne (Sandy) Stone is Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Advanced Communication Technologies Laboratory (ACTLab) and New Media Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin; Senior Artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts; Rockefeller Foundation advisor; and Fellow of the University of California Humanities Research Institute. She began her controversial performances in the late 1980s with "Body Maps", a personal memoir about desire and technology, and now tours extensively, performing at theaters, museums, universities, and galleries worldwide. In various incarnations she has been a filmmaker, rock 'n roll music engineer, neurologist, researcher, social scientist, cultural theorist, and performer, and is widely recognized as the founder of the field of Transgender Studies. She is the author of numerous films, broadcasts, essays and publications including "The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto" and "The War of Desire and Technology at the Close of the Mechanical Age", both of which are available in a wide selection of translated editions. She lives in Austin, Texas and Santa Cruz, California with her husband Cynbe ru Taren (aka Jeffrey Prothero) and their cat, /dev/cat. Learn more about Sandy Stone at www.sandystone.com