:: Diane Torr's Book Launch ::
(Critical Performances)
by Diane Torr and Stephen J. Bottoms
For nearly twenty years, performance artist Diane Torr has been teaching women how to dress and pass as men on city streets around the world. This cultural subterfuge has appealed to many, for different reasons: personal confidence building, sexual frisson, gender subversion, trans-curiosity, or just the appeal of disguise and role play. This book documents and contextualizes the development of Torr's internationally celebrated workshops, as well as her own ongoing experiments in performing gender-play in theaters, galleries, and clubs. She has been one of the key pioneers of "drag king" performance.
The book blends first-person memoir and commentary from Torr with critical reflections and contextualization from leading performance critic Stephen Bottoms, including a consideration of the long cultural history of female-to-male cross-dressing. The book concludes with Torr's "Do It Yourself " guide to becoming a "Man for a Day."
Diane Torr, born in Canada and now living in Glasgow, has performed across the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe and has earned an international reputation for her gender transformation workshops (featured on "This American Life" on NPR). Her work has also been profiled in an HBO special.
Stephen Bottoms is Wole Soyinka Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds. His books include the prize-winning Playing Underground: A Critical History of the 1960s Off-Off-Broadway Movement.
For more info, please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com
January 28, 2011 1pm
Hordaland Art Centre
Klosteret 17, PB 1745 Nordnes
5816 Bergen, Norway
Tel + 47 55 90 85 90
event details
February 10, 2011 7.30pm
February 10, 2011 7.30pm
Diane Torr & Pink Fringe presents
Diane Torr’s Mustachioed Book Launch
The Marlborough Theatre
4 Prince's St
Brighton, East Sussex BN2 1RD
Tel: +44 07771 394773
Free Event
Join legendary New York Drag King, Diane Torr as she launches her new book Sex, Drag and Male Roles; Investigating Gender as Performance co-authored with Stephen Bottoms. Expect a mustachioed affair with performance from local drag kings, film and a mustache making workshop - materials provided!
www.pinkfringe.org.uk
February 15, 2011 7.30pm
Club Wotever
Royal Vauxhall Tavern
372 Kennington Lane
London SE11 5HY
Tel: +44 020 7820 1222
event details
February 20, 2011
International Festival Novadanca
Brasilia, Brazil
www.festivalnovadanca.blogspot.com
Further book - launches to be announced in Leeds, Berlin and West Coast, USA