The Performing Self

Perhaps my own best if small example of "the performing self" was an experiment of sorts I did decades ago as a playwright.

I prefer the "presentational" tradition in theater more than the "representational" tradition, the presentational tradition that follows the work of Thornton Wilder. European playwrights have been influenced more by Wilder than American playwrights. I came to believe that certain dramatic styles were more acceptable to American audiences if they were presented as "foreign." Therefore, I invented a Russian playwright, whom I called Vladimir Koshkov, and I posed as his translator. A one-act got produced and was received far better, I believe, than if I had presented the play as my own.

Unfortunately, the dramatic press took an interest in the play, and a critic wanted to interview the playwright. I had to follow one performance, or lie, with another: I said Koshkov was a pseudonym for a Russian in hiding, whose life was in danger from the KGB. I mean, we all know a Big Lie works better than a small one. Since I had been a Russian linguist in the Army Security Agency, with a secret codeword security clearance, I told this story with some authority. To make a long story short, the performance (both of them: mine and Koshkov's) worked. Well, sort of. The director of the play, who knew my work, never did believe Koshkov existed, never did understand what I was up to, and never did believe my stammering explanation that, well, yes, it sounds like my work because I took liberties with the translation.

But I still believe, to this day, that a wildly presentational play written by an American would be harder to produce than one written by a European. It is hard for me to imagine a play like Waiting For Godot being accepted if it were written by an American.