Performing Palimpsest Bodies

Proposing the innovative concept of palimpsest bodies to interpret provocative theatre and performance experiments that explore issues of cultural memory, bodies of history, archives, repertoires and performing remains, Ruth Hellier-Tinoco offers an in-depth analysis of four postdramatic and transdisciplinary collective creation theatre projects. Combined with ideas of postmemory and rememory, palimpsest bodies are inherently trans-temporal as they perform re-visions of embodied gestures, vocalized calls and sensory experiences.Focusing on one of Mexico’s most significant contemporary theatre companies, La Máquina de Teatro, directed by renowned artists Juliana Faesler and Clarissa Malheiros, this ground-breaking study documents the playfully rigorous performances of layered, plural and trans identities as collaborative, feminist and queer re-visions of official histories and collective memories.Illustrated with over one hundred colour photos, Performing Palimpsest Bodies: Postmemory Theatre Experiments in Mexico will appeal to creative artists and scholars interested in contemporary theatre and performance studies, critical dance studies, collective creation and performance-making.

"In this study, Hellier-Tinoco examines four performance projects created by Mexico's La Maquina de Teatro, each exploring and experimenting with transtemporality, collective memory, and the palimpsest bodies of history. . . . Hellier-Tinoco provides a close reading of each performance, exposing thematic resonances of history, memory, and coporeality through her analyses of performance methodology, staging, and audience interaction."-- "TDR: The Drama Review", "The book is unconventional in format and methodology, but it serves a greater purpose by archiving and presenting the work of La Máquina de Teatro to an English-speaking audience that otherwise might not have encountered the group or its pieces. With well over 300 color photographs . . . this book presents the work of the Mexican theatre company in a way that is accessible to scholars, artists, and students."-- "Jimmy A. Noriega, Latin American Theatre Review", "[Hellier-Tinoco] offers an in-depth look at La Máquina de Teatro, documenting and analyzing four of the company's recent projects. . . . By shining a spotlight on La Máquina, Hellier-Tinoco through her book also calls attention to what she characterized as the 'profound and exhilarating' performance and theater happening throughout Mexico more broadly."-- "The Current"

Ruth Hellier-Tinoco is a professor of performing arts (music, theatre, dance) and performance studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. As a scholar-creative artist her work explores intersecting performance practices of identity, memory, history and environments, particularly in Mexican cultural contexts, with a focus on community-engagement, power relations and playful creative experiments. She is editor of the multidisciplinary journal Mexican Studies (Estudios Mexicanos).