Upcoming performances, workshops, and residencies

For more info, please email me: diane.torr@googlemail.com

Drift Merchant
part of the Merchant City Festival
Glasgow

July 24 & 25, 2010
2pm and 4pm

Drift Merchant is based on the Situationist idea of a "derive" - a "detournement" - as a way to re-invent and change the way that the city is used.
This is an opportunity to re-arrange and reclaim the streets through a newly invented map, created and provided by moi.  Street names are changed to reflect their ambience.  Direction of drift is chosen by random events.  Particular sites require specific behavioural actions.  New vistas will be revealed; surprises will revel us, and we will exist as an exotic drifting entity for one hour only.  Nudity is not required.

To book in advance email: mcfestivaltours@uzevents.com

I will also be performing my "two banana dance" as part of the end of the festival celebration with artists performers and crew. Curry and performances from Roger (The Devils Chauffeur) Ely, Ian ( Mischief La Bas) Smith and a galaxy of surprise appearances in the glorious surroundings of Sloans Ballroom.  Ticket price includes 2 course meal. 

PERFORMANCE BANQUET at Sloan’s

July 25, 2010
7.30pm
62 Argyle Arcade, Glasgow £15

To book in advance: merchantcityfestival.com

Lecture series at Centro Cultural Montehermoso
Vitoria, Spain
(in celebration of LGBT Pride Day)

June 24, 2010

More info/details at:
www.montehermoso.net

Trespass/Desire
(part of the Glasgow International 2010)

April 27, 2010
8pm
Le Drapeau Noir
(located opposite Stereo on Renfield Lane, Glasgow)
Free entrance

Donald Does Dusty

April 5, 2010
8pm
New York, NY
LaMama ETC
Tix $15
click here for postcard/flyer

click here for further info

for enrollment & further questions,
please email Diane at diane.torr@googlemail.com

Location TBA
Enrollment is limited so please email Diane at diane.torr@googlemail.com

The Man for a Day Workshop is a unique experience. “This is a workshop that I’ve been teaching for nearly 20 years and women, (and the occasional man or trans) have taken it for a variety of reasons. Maybe during a lifetime of observing men in your neighborhood, on the subway, in the office, in cars, in your home, etc., you have a certain curiosity about how they “get away” with certain behaviors that would be considered undesirable in women. You might want to experience the transformation from female to male as a way to intercept your so-called “normal” behavior as woman, and discover new responses. Think about the process of buying a car.......as a woman, it is generally assumed that you know nothing about cars, and car dealers generally reflect that attitude. After a workshop, one particularly convincing participant actually went to a car dealership and used her male guise as a means to cut a deal that she said would have been unthinkable as a woman. Other women have attended the workshop and then met with a lover (male or female) for a night of role-play thrills. Some participants are actresses and opera singers, who had “pants” roles and they wanted to make their characters more authentic. Occasionally, a woman has attended the workshop who wanted to explore her desire to become a man permanently, and then the workshop was a catalyst for that decision. For most participants - their reason to commit to being a man for a day, or a weekend was to have fun, to be outrageous. By exploring familiar situations, like going to a bar or restaurant and interacting with others in a new identity, there was a chance to play with ideas that are taken so seriously on a daily basis - hey what are you? A Man or a Woman??? Of course, women have cross-dressed throughout history and used the guise to their advantage. An important distinction to the workshop is that the intention is not to “pass”, but rather to question what is considered a given. In the course of constructing another identity, one instantly sees other possibilities of being. In becoming a man you learn how to “walk the walk” and “talk the talk” without having to wear a testosterone patch! This is a chance to escape for one day from the social construction of a “woman” identity and to literally discover a new YOU!!”

During the weekend workshop, either Diane or a make-up artist will give each person an individual make-over and will provide facial hair, 5 o’clock shadow, etc. Each person is responsible for the male clothes they will need for their male identity. Please also bring: hair gel, a wide elasticated bandage (5inches minimum) to bind breasts, and a fake penis - (condom stuffed with cotton wool for example). We will learn how to take up space, walk, eat, drink, pick up objects, smile, etc. as men. We will interact with each other, in character, and develop our new identities. The workshop culminates in a visit to a public place such as bar, strip club, dance club, where we will test out our new identities. We each take from the workshop what is useful to us, but we all leave with the shared experience (and the kick) of going beyond our “regular” selves and expanding our gender repertoire.

A.I.R. Gallery’s
The Man I Wish I Was (Gallery II)

Organized by Kharis Kennedy

January 6 - January 31, 2010
Opening Reception:
Thursday, January 7th from 6 to 8pm

The Man I Wish I Was marks A.I.R. Gallery’s continuing commitment to keeping the feminist movement in motion and includes eighteen contemporary artists who self identify as female. In keeping with the feminist tradition of irreverent internal-critique and self-vigilance, the intent of this exhibition is to question how gender perception relates to personal identity.

Works included in The Man I Wish I Was range in dates from the 1970’s to 2009 and include sculpture, photography, painting, drawing, video and text-based work. Diane will be exhibiting two works from her "Ideal Homo Series".

Exhibiting artists: Renee Cox, Enid Crow, Kerry Downey, Kelly Flynn, Coco Fusco, Francie Bishop Good, Catherine Kunkemueller, Liz Lessner, Sarah Maple, Sands Murray-Wassink, Dominique Paul, Phranc, Shannon Plumb, Julia Kim Smith, Annie Sprinkle, Diane Torr, Linn Underhill, Martha Wilson.

Read the press release

For more info, please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

Friday November 13th, Diane Torr,
FF Alum at Wunderbar Festival
Newcastle Symposium
Performance Now and Then - 3-5pm
Performance - Donald Does Dusty - 6-7.30pm

Gallery North
Squires Building
Northumbria University
Sandyford Road
Newcastle upon Tyne

For more info, please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

POETRY EVENT: SCHILLER AND BURNS

A 250th Birthday Celebration
With Sheila Dickson, Louise Welsh and Diane Torr

TUESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2009, 7 PM
GOETHE-INSTITUT GLASGOW,
3 PARK CIRCUS, GLASGOW
Free event

This year marks not only the 250th anniversary of the birth of Scotland’s national bard Robert Burns, (25 January 1759 - 21 July 1796) but also the 250th anniversary of the birth of the German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller (10 November 1759 - 9 May 1805).

Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” (Freude schöner Götterfunken), set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven for the final movement of his 9th Symphony, celebrates the ideal of unity of humankind and has become the European anthem. Burns’ “Auld Lang Syne” is known across the world and is often sung to celebrate the start of a new year.

These and other poems, some of them set to music, will be part of our Birthday Celebration in honour of the two poets, on the day of the 250th anniversary of Schiller’s birth. Sheila Dickson, senior lecturer in German at Glasgow University, will give a talk on parallels in the poets’ lives and similarities in their works; the artist Diane Torr and the writer Louise
Welsh will recite some poems by Burns, and Goethe-Institut Glasgow’s director Barbara Kaulbach will read poems and excerpts from plays by Schiller. Refreshments – and a birthday cake! – will be provided.

Diane Torr, talk & performance, GoMA,
Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow

Free event

For more info please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

sh(OUT),
Contemporary Art and Human Rights exhibition
Gallery of Modern Art, (GoMA) Glasgow

9 April - 1 November 2009

A photograph from my installation, IDEAL HOMO (1999) is on exhibit as part of the sh(OUT) Contemporary art and human rights exhibition. The exhibition which celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex art and culture includes work by Patricia Cronin, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Sunil Gupta, David Hockney, Holly Johnson, Deborah Kass, Ins A Kromminga, Sadie Lee, Chad McCail, Robert Mapplethorpe, Catherine Opie, Grayson Perry, Piere et Gilles, Jack Pierson, Lizzie Towe, Del LaGrace Volcano and myself.

For more info please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

DISBAND,
Martha Wilson, Ilona Granet and Diane Torr, performing in Incheon, Korea

Members of DISBAND, Martha Wilson, Ilona Granet and Diane Torr, are performing August 1st at 1pm for 2009 International Incheon Women Artists' Biennale - August 1-31, 2009, Incheon, S. Korea. The 21st Century, The Feminine Century, and the Century of Diversity and Hope. The 21st Century exhibition, including work by male and female artists, curated by Heng-Gil Han, curator of Jamaica Center of the Arts, Queens, NY, envisions the 21st century as feminine, diverse, and free of any political, racial or sexual oppression.

Their work as individuals is also part of the main exhibition, as is the work of Carolee Schneeman, among others.

For more info please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

DIANE TORR’S MAN FOR A DAY WORKSHOP

Hope Martin Studio
37 West 14th Street
April 18 - 12noon-10pm
April 19 - 12noon-6pm

For more info, please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

MAN FOR A DAY WORKSHOP

The Man for a Day Workshop is a unique experience. “This is a workshop that I’ve been teaching for nearly 20 years and women, (and the occasional man or trans) have taken it for a variety of reasons. Maybe during a lifetime of observing men in your neighborhood, on the subway, in the office, in cars, in your home, etc., you have a certain curiosity about how they “get away” with certain behaviors that would be considered undesirable in women. You might want to experience the transformation from female to male as a way to intercept your so-called “normal” behavior as woman, and discover new responses. Think about the process of buying a car.......as a woman, it is generally assumed that you know nothing about cars, and car dealers generally reflect that attitude. After a workshop, one particularly convincing participant actually went to a car dealership and used her male guise as a means to cut a deal that she said would have been unthinkable as a woman. Other women have attended the workshop and then met with a lover (male or female) for a night of role-play thrills. Some participants are actresses and opera singers, who had “pants” roles and they wanted to make their characters more authentic. Occasionally, a woman has attended the workshop who wanted to explore her desire to become a man permanently, and then the workshop was a catalyst for that decision. For most participants - their reason to commit to being a man for a day, or a weekend was to have fun, to be outrageous. By exploring familiar situations, like going to a bar or restaurant and interacting with others in a new identity, there was a chance to play with ideas that are taken so seriously on a daily basis - hey what are you? A Man or a Woman??? Of course, women have cross-dressed throughout history and used the guise to their advantage. An important distinction to the workshop is that the intention is not to “pass”, but rather to question what is considered a given. In the course of constructing another identity, one instantly sees other possibilities of being. In becoming a man you learn how to “walk the walk” and “talk the talk” without having to wear a testosterone patch! This is a chance to escape for one day from the social construction of a “woman” identity and to literally discover a new YOU!!”

During the weekend workshop, either Diane or a make-up artist will give each person an individual make-over and will provide facial hair, 5 o’clock shadow, etc. Each person is responsible for the male clothes they will need for their male identity. Please also bring: hair gel, a wide elasticated bandage (5inches minimum) to bind breasts, and a fake penis - (condom stuffed with cotton wool for example). We will learn how to take up space, walk, eat, drink, pick up objects, smile, etc. as men. We will interact with each other, in character, and develop our new identities. The workshop culminates in a visit to a public place such as bar, strip club, dance club, where we will test out our new identities. We each take from the workshop what is useful to us, but we all leave with the shared experience (and the kick) of going beyond our “regular” selves and expanding our gender repertoire.

Diane Torr is an artist, director and educator working in performance, film and installation. She made performances in New York for over 25 years. Her work explores notions of gender and the erotic, and focuses on strategies to reinvent the narratives of sex and gender. Her solo drag performances have been seen around town since 1982. Diane’s art performances and installations are presented in galleries, performance venues and festivals throughout the U.S. and Europe. She has taught Drag King Workshops in over 20 cities, including Istanbul, Helsinki, Berlin, Glasgow, Lisbon, New York, and New Delhi. She was a protagonist of the feature film, Venus Boyz, by Swiss filmmaker, Gabriel Baur. Diane’s work has been the subject of profiles on BBC2 Q.E.D. and HBO’s “Reel Sex”, in the Washingon Post, Village Voice, London Independent, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, German Vogue, among others. She also receives grants and awards from NYSCA, Jerome Foundation, Art Matters, Yorkshire Arts, and the Scottish arts Council. In 2002 Diane re-situated her art practice to Glasgow, where she is a Visiting Lecturer at Glasgow School of Art. Diane’s book, co-authored by steve Bottoms and completed in February 2009, Performing Masculinity, is forthcoming from U. of Michigan Press.

Diane does DONALD DOES DUSTY

for four nights only on March 11-14 at 7.30pm
The Tron Theatre
63 Trongate, Glasgow
Box Office: 0141 552 4267
<< download flyer >>

For more info please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

25 Years of Sex & Drag

lecture series at Wimbledon School of Art
February 18
talk: 11.30-1pm
workshop: 2 - 4pm
<< download flyer >>

For more info please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

MAN FOR A DAY Workshops in Berlin late Sep/early October.
Details of time and place to be announced.
Workshop Seminars on GENDER AND PERFORMANCE and lecture on 25 YEARS OF SEX AND DRAG to be presented in colleges and universities in the UK between October 2008-May2009.

For more info and to register, please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

FIRST INTERNATIONAL DRAG KING FESTIVAL IN ITALY:

July 10-12
Rome
www.kingsvillage.it

July 19-20
Milan
Contact:  helen.ibry@gmail.com
Workshop will be hosted by: ArciLesbica Zami Milano

Have a kingly summer y'all!

For more info and to register, please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

Drag King Workshop

at Hope Martin Studio, 39 W 14th St Ste 501, btw 5th and 6th Aves

Workshop times are 12noon-midnight (approx)
June 21 and 12noon- 6pm June 22

We will go out publicly on Saturday evening to a place everyone agrees upon.
Each person is responsible for their own male clothes, and also to bring breast binder (a wide ace bandage is best), and penis-making material, like condom stuffed with cotton wool.

For more info and to register, please email me at diane.torr@googlemail.com

Diane Torr performing with DISBAND at MOMA/PS1
as part of:: WACK! ART AND THE FEMINIST REVOLUTION

<< performance lineup >>

30th Anniversary Reunion of DISBAND featuring Ilona Granet, Donna Hennes, Diane Torr and Martha Wilson.

Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 2pm
MOMA/PS1

<< directions to MOMA/PS1 >>

Diane Torr presents
BROTHER FOR A DAY
on International AIDS Day:

A saucy mix of comedy, performance, burlesque and music in aid of The Terence Higgins Trust Scotland
Including:

MC: Viv Gee, comedienne

Performers:
Neo-Burlesque - Vixens in Silk including the Goddess of Chocolate, clown act by Dusky Champagne, and a manic Dusty Springfield act by singer Violet Tweets
Mister EE
Miss Leggy Pee
Vienna Velvet
San Francisco poet – Hal Duncan
Performance artist – Adrian Howell
Chris Young and his Gay Parrot
Markee
Rambo-Hood

Bands: 
Glasgow Glam Bangers
DJ – hushpuppy (Record Playerz/Death Disco)

Tickets (on the door): £7 (£5 concessions)
Saturday, December 1, 2007 at 9:00pm-2:00am
Carnival Arts Centre
34 Albion Street
Glasgow, United Kingdom
tel: 01413323838

If you are in the vicinity of London on Friday, please come along to this:

Presented by The Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre and The International Workshop Festival

£30 full price / £15 concessions
Please contact cett@cssd.ac.uk to book your place.

Speakers:
Angela McRobbie, Goldsmiths; Lara Clifton, Artistic Producer of The Whoopee Club; Sheryl Dodds, University of Surrey; Darlinda Just Darlinda, New York; Liselle Terret, Central School of Speech and Drama; Diane Torr, Glasgow School of Art

Performers:
Empress Stah; Ryan Styles; Russella; Pia Arber; Red Sarah; Miss Fancy Chance; Doris La Trine; and more …

The event will begin with a roundtable discussion from 4pm. A buffet supper and drinks will be served from 6:30pm. Performances will begin at 7:30pm

The event will bring together theatre makers, theatre thinkers and theatre students to ask:
Is the resurgence of burlesque a continuation of the exploitation of women's bodies or is it potentially part of a new feminism?

Is this performance genre, originally used as a performative platform for women to comment on social and political issues, being reclaimed in the contemporary moment?

Can neo-burlesque be mobilised as a critical space of queer performativity, exploring male and trans burlesque?

This event is part of …
Theatre Materials / Material Theatres: CETT 2007/08 The Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre (CETT) is based at the Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.  It works to provide a national resource for vocational performing arts training and learning, a focus for theatre research and scholarship, and a site for collaboration, nationally and internationally, between industry, Higher Education, and specialist training providers.

Body Work and Anatomical Release Technique with Diane! (through Dance House)  

September 17th - December 20th 

Classes take place 18.00-19.30 at the Scottish Youth Theatre,
The Old Sheriff Court, 105 Brunswick Street, Glasgow. £96 (£72)
Call Dance house to register 0141 552 2442

Please email Dancehouse at info@dancehouse.org for more details and for registration.

A one week exploratory dance/performance workshop with Diane at the Dance Studio, The Bridge, Easterhouse, Glasgow  Aug 6-10 from 10am-3pm.  

This workshop is funded by the Scottish Arts Council under the terms of Diane's artist residency at the Bridge, and is therefore a FREE event.  Participants will be expected to commit for the whole
week.

Please email Diane at diane.torr@googlemail.com for more details and for registration.

Pradillo Theatre, Madrid - July 5-7 (details to follow)

For more info, email Diane: diane.torr@googlemail.com

Kaos, London - July 14 (details to follow)

For more info, email Diane: diane.torr@googlemail.com

Spaces are limited so please email Diane if you are interested in participating:
diane.torr@googlemail.com

RELEASE TECHNIQUE CLASSES taught by Diane Torr:
beginning Monday Jan 29, 2007 18.00-19.30
for eight weeks

arranged by: Dance House, at SYT, Glasgow
info/register: info@dancehouse.org

In Release Technique, anatomically based visual images are given as a stimulus for movement, which enable participants to let go of hidden tensions and realign with the natural forces of gravity and counter balance. Integral to this is the development of an awareness of the body's anatomy and kinesiology. Through the releasing process, we will learn how to move with more freedom and economy. Spontaneous movement explorations will allow us to creatively integrate these changes in our bodies. The experience of initiating movement interiorly allows each participant to develop their unique movement potential and style.   This class is open to all – dance professionals, movers, and anyone who wants to learn to move in a way that is anatomically and energy efficient.

Diane Torr has taught Release Technique for over 25 years.  She originally studied Release with Mary Fulkerson at Dartington College of Arts, and then in New York with Joanne Skinner, Nancy Topf and Andre Bernard.

For more information, please contact: diane.torr@googlemail.com

MAN FOR A DAY WORKSHOP:
weekend of December 16 & 17
Berlin

December 16 - 12h-20h
December 17 - 12h-18h

LOCATION: TBA
FEE: 150euros
(two full scholarships available for those unable to pay)

Enrollment is limited so register now.

For more information, please contact: diane.torr@googlemail.com
 
Contact in Berlin: Nina Peters +49 (30)262 2320

DONALD DOES DUSTY
at the CCA (Centre for Contemporary Art),
Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow

(part of the Glasgay Festival, and a Glasgay Festival commission. 
Funding also provided by Scottish Arts Council.)

October 25, 26, 27,28 at 8pm.
For more details go to www.glasgay.com

For many years Diane Torr harboured the desire to create a performance in celebration of the life of her late brother, Donald Torr, who died from AIDS in 1992. Diane and her two elder brothers, grew up in Mastrick, a new housing estate that pushed into the countryside on the outskirts of Aberdeen, Scotland. Donald was always full of big ideas?, and in 1953, at the age of five, dressed in his mothers clothes, his small boy feet sloshing about in high heels, Donald went trick or treating. This Halloween disguise was only the beginning, and Donald continued his various female impersonations, and other daring explorations throughout his childhood. Then as a young teenager, Dusty Springfield became his role model. She was the only other gay person he knew of so in his eyes they were a team Donald and Dusty. Everyone else was boringly heterosexual. There was only one solution get out of town! At the age of 13, Donald succeeded in persuading his mother to allow him to attend drama school in London. Soon he was performing on TV; and then he became a member of BBC's The Young Generation. He acted and danced and was featured in magazines and newspapers, but it was as a dealer in antiques and property that he ultimately became rich and successful. In DONALD DOES DUSTY, Diane Torr acknowledges and celebrates Donald's huge influence on her life and career as a performer and drag king artist. But, some questions arise - in making a tribute how conveniently deceptive is personal memory? How does grief feed the mystery of one who has been? And, above all, how does she deal with discovering evidence that upsets and contradicts some of her assumptions of who that once-adored person really was?

Talk – 25 Years of Sex and Gender
May 5: 4-6pm
Drag King Workshop
May 6-7
University of Aberystwyth, Wales
Contact: Trisha at par@aber.ac.uk

Talk – 25 Years of Sex and Gender
May 18: 5.15pm
Drag King Workshop
May 19-20
University of Leeds
Contact: Professor Steve Bottoms S.J.Bottoms@leeds.ac.uk

Performance
June 17
Transfabulous Festival, London
Oxford House Theatre. Event will include performances by the following artists: Angela de Castro, Josephine Wilson, Jessica Lauren and Jennifer Maidman and Debra-Jane Appelby.
for more info:
www.transfabulous.co.uk