CORY SAVAGE
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EXPERIENCE DESIGN + DIRECTION
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CORY SAVAGE · EXPERIENCE DESIGN + DIRECTION ·
DORIS
WINTER 2024 · NEW YORK CITY
CREATED + PERFORMED - JOAN NELSON
EXPERIENCE DESIGN + DIRECTION - CORY SAVAGE
DRAMATURGY + DIRECTION - ANDREW J. MULLINS
photography - John lagucki + Curtis brown
makeup design - Tommy tafoya
wig styling - bella perez
scenic fabrication - Bryan hartlett
technical support - portia wells
PERFORMED AT THEATRE 154 - POWERED BY OUT OF THE BOX THEATRICS + CHASHAMA
A found audio pastiche of Old Hollywood, Television, and Broadway tells the story of a wayward trans performer, stuck in a loop, lip syncing a story that is not her own. Or is the story so close that her fantasy can no longer mask the reality OF failure?
part lip-sync cabaret / part magic show, “DORIS” unravels her delusions of stardom + exposes the solitude of addiction in this unflinching + profoundly intimate immersive experience
straight out of the 90’s + radiating melancholy, DORIS’ apartment was a nostalgic, spatially intimate + tactile performance space. audiences became guests — they’d kick off their shoes, cozy up on the furniture, raid the fridge + snoop through DORIS’ things (wouldn’t you?) — sharing a unique perspective from within DORIS’ evening reverie.
with no “backstage space” the TRUE magic trick was hiding the technical support system in plain sight — electrical, sound, dmx + video cabling, projectors + atmospheric effects, practical + moving lights, dimmer packs + show control interfaces had to be blended into the scene, satisfying the illusion that the apartment was furnished only by everyday things.
ARTWORK
“ANIMATED ARTIFACT” EMAIL CAMPAIGN
