Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2023 - 9

prevailed in the Asian pavilions representing
disputed territories.
The footprints of the national exhibitions
were physically smaller than they
have been in previous editions of the PQ,
but they were no less inventive. Themes
woven through the National Exhibitions
of Regions and Countries included environmental
disaster and reclamation,
climate change, the devastation of war,
subjugation of women and other marginalized
populations, personal freedoms vs.
governmental
dictatorships,
memories,
the meaning of home, the loss of humanity,
and the resilience of humanity. There
were few costumed dress forms, but in
some cases, costumes were displayed
as objects. In the Catalonian exhibition,
winner of the ČT art Award for the Most
Socially Sensitive Exhibition costume
pieces without performers, expressed
the absence of people, and the infiltration
and resurrection of nature in a world destroyed
by humans. The largest costume
presence in the Exhibitions of Regions
and Countries occurred during live performances,
which were peppered throughout
the exhibition spaces.
U.S. Costume Artists in the National
Pavilion
The work of the designers featured in the
National U.S. pavilion was experienced
via two video screens accompanied by a
soundscape visitors could access through
headphones. In the soundscape, the artists
verbally introduced and explained
their work, and in this regard the format
felt personal. However, like many of the
PQ pavilions, the use of headphones also
isolated people occupying the same physical
space. There were no actual costume
pieces or artifacts in the U.S. National exhibition,
so the viewer experienced images
edited and curated by the videographers.
Some thematic threads ran through
both the subject matter and the practices
of the artists. The pandemic, social justice
issues, personal and societal identity
issues, the environmental crisis, climate
change, and imagining our country in other
contexts were themes running through
singular or multiple costume projects.
Four artists generated original work alone
or with a group of people; three artists
presented work that was traditionally reactive
to extant texts. Two of the three textbased
works were highly reconceived or
adapted.
The Israeli exhibition, WondeRare Women, conceived and curated by Anat Mesner,
was a series of eight art installations by female fringe artists who created most of
the aspects of each work: writing, direction, design, and performance. Subjects
ranged from childbirth and infertility to domestic abuse and consensual homicide.
Twelve performances of a single work, Stand By, by Gabrielle Neuhaus accompanied
the Israeli installations. This piece explored the emotional states of immigrant
women who married for love, but experienced isolation and fear in their new
country of Israel. | Photo by Margaret Mitchell.
Othello
Perhaps the most radical reimagined
adaption of a classic text was Tara Moses'
adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. The
South Dakota Shakespeare Festival provided
costume " creator " Elizabeth Wislar
of the Northern Cherokee Nation the license
to reimagine the Othello story, both
aesthetically and in practice. Moses' adaptation
set Othello in the year 2176 just
after the United States has been dissolved
and all tribal lands are returned to Native
Peoples with help of the Black Liberation
Movement. Wislar and the other artists on
the project began the rehearsal process by
articulating their own familial histories,
bringing awareness of individual biographies
impacting the work of the storytelling
in the style of Indigenous Futurism.
Wislar also insisted on using only found
materials to decrease the production's
environmental impact. The result was a
richly layered feast of color and texture,
and a story turned on its end to offer the
audience a future reality and history they
may not have considered.
FALL 2023 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 9
Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2023

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