This is the first entry in which I am going to talk in depth about something, and it happens to be a subject that is very important to my work and to me personally.
There was an article published in the New York Times today, September 4, titled "The 9 Habits of Highly Creative Directors." The focus of this article was a director named Tina Landau who is known for use of "the viewpoints." The quotation marks are necessary because the methods practiced and used by Tina Landau come from "the viewpoints" as perceived by Anne Bogart. There is a discrepancy between the viewpoints as practiced by Anne Bogart and the viewpoints practiced by a woman named Mary Overlie, and this discrepancy, as well as the New York Times article, is what motivates me to write this entry.
Mary Overlie has been my mentor and friend for several years now. She is widely regarded as the originator of the viewpoints (even the NY Times article gives her that credit), but she is not known as the one to bring the viewpoints practice to the theater world. As a choreographer, Mary originally used the viewpoints as a language to inform the creation of movement pieces, but over the last 15 years the work has taken on a whole new aspect. There is now an entire philosophical body of thought that contemplates the place of the viewpoints in contemporary theater and in the art world in general. The practices of the viewpoints have developed to become very intricate. There is a process in place for beginners that want to learn about this work. Most importantly, the philosophical underpinnings, the practices, and the process created by Mary Overlie differs in almost every conceivable way from the work of Anne Bogart.
Despite the practice and study of Mary's viewpoints in many academic and artistic institutions, including but not limited to the Experimental Theatre Wing at Tisch School of the Arts (NYU), Mary's name has been left out of the story and practice of the Viewpoints in the commercial theater world and in equally as many academic and artistic institutions as include her name. There is even a conversation that exists in the world of theater (though it is constantly stifled by many in the field) discussing whether or not Anne Bogart stole the work form Mary in the first place.
I am not equipped to discuss the complexities of the theft of the Viewpoints, but I am in a great position, possibly the best position besides Mary herself, to discuss The Viewpoints as created and practiced by Mary Overlie. I will be writing extensively about this topic for the next five years, and probably for the rest of my life. The issue of Mary Overlie being credited for her work and for students and artists of all types recognizing and studying Mary's work, as a practice distinct from Anne Bogart's viewpoints, is very close to me. I ask you all to look at Mary's website, which I will list at the end of this entry as well as will I place it in my links section off to the right, and learn about this work. Mary's work is of vital importance if you seek to learn anything about Postmodern Dance or Theatre, Modern Dance and Theatre, and The Viewpoints. Please comment if you have thoughts on this subject.
Check out Mary Overlie's Viewpoints
4 comments:
i agree wholeheartedly with the ideas of this piece and would open out the dialogue to enbrace the current tendencies generallt in the arts to neglect to mention the originators of many of the "new" ideas being presented by many "artists" as their own material!! _
Hello There,
Wow! I am a professional researcher in my dayjob and if it's one thing I appreciate, it's getting it right.
I'm not sure how close my recent blogpost comes to doing that, but I would welcome any clarifications, if not outright corrections, you might care to reply with.
Thank you so much again for your post, and if there's anything I'm bigger on than simply getting it right--it's to make sure that credit is given where credit is due.
Most appreciatively,
Bob Rodriguez
bob@bobrodriguez.co
Anne Bogart never claimed to be the originator of The Viewpoints. If you read the book she wrote with Tina Landau you'll know that she is crediting Mary Overlie as her teacher she learned about Viewpoints and developed her own approach by what Mary Overlie tought her. She never hides this fact. So there is nothing to reveal or discuss. It is quite surprising to me that people talk about theft referring to a subject like Viewpoints. No one owns the Viewpoints and I think it is pretty clear to people who seriously work in this fields that Anne Bogart's approach is different from Mary Overlie's. And I guess Mary Overlie doesn't need any help to get recognized in the art's world for her gifts. She is probably to busy with her work to waste time and energy on thinking about "theft" or anything similar...
Martin,
I wrote this post almost ten years ago. If I wrote it today, I would change a lot of the wording. For example, I would not stress the "theft" of the work. Instead, I would discuss the qualitative differences between the two viewpoints systems and then advocate for Mary's. As for Mary's own opinions on the matter, we'll have to wait to see if she publishes her book on the matter. In the meantime, for you or for anyone else who would like to read her work, you can check out her essay in the volume Manifesto Now! Instructions for Performance, Philosophy, Politics, edited by Laura Cull and me.
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