Chained into That Machine: John Jesurun’s Mediaturgical Adaptations

Communication unites, but communication also divides. This wellworn media studies tenet was never more applicable than in Everything That Rises Must Converge, a 1990 experimental echo of Flannery O’Connor’s short story staged by John Jesurun, the Pope of Greenwich Village’s “postsurrealist” Feingold 85 theater scene. It is an avant-garde adaptation of a work within a larger collection itself inspired by French philosopher’s Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s conceptualization of the “Omega Point,” wherein the latter urges his readers to Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from the same direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge 11 .

___

  • Auslander, Philip. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.
  • Bassnett, Susan. “Translating Genre.” Genre Matters. Eds. Garin Dowd, Lesley Stevenson, and Jeremy Strong. Bristol: Intellect, 2006. 85-95. Print.
  • Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. 2nd ed.. New York: Oxford UP., 1997. Print.
  • Bolter, Jay David with Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Print.
  • Callens, Johan. “The Builders Association: S/he Do the Police in Different Voices.” The Wooster Group and its Traditions. Ed. Johan Callens. Brussels: PIE-Peter Lang, 2004. 247-261. Print.
  • Cattrysse, Patrick. “Media Translation: Plea for an Interdisciplinary Approach.” Versus: Quaderni di studi semiotici 85-87 (2000): 251- 269. Print.
  • Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de. Building the Earth and the Psychological Conditions of Human Unification. New York: Avon, 1969. Print.
  • Farley, Kathrin. “Review of Faust/How I Rose.” Theatre Journal 57.3 (2005): 507-509. Print.
  • Feingold, Michael. “Faust Things First: Bilingual, Time-Jumping, and Polycultural, John Jesurun Scrambles Goethe’s Mystic Egghead.” Village Voice 7 Sep. 2004: 85. Print.
  • Fried, Ronald K. “John Jesurun’s Chang in a Void Moon.” The Drama Review 27.2 (1983): 73-77. Print.
  • Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Faust. Eine Tragödie. München: Römersche Verlagsanstalt, 1949. Print.
  • Gholson, Craig. “John Jesurun.” BOMB 11 (1985): 90-91. Print.
  • Hagan, John. “John Hagan on John Jesurun.” Art Forum International 38.2 (1999): 124. Print.
  • Helbo, André. “Performance Studies.” Approaching Theater. Ed. André Helbo, J. Dines Johansen, Patrice Pavis, and Anne Ubersfeld. Bloomington: Indiana UP., 1991. 1-20. Print.
  • ------. Signes du spectacle: Des arts vivants aux medias. Brussels: PIE-Peter Lang, 2006. Print.
  • Hofstadter, Douglas. I Am A Strange Loop. New York: Basic Books, 2007. Print.
  • Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. New York and London: Routledge, 2006. Print.
  • Jesurun, John. “Breaking the Relentless Spool of Film Unrolling.” Felix: A Journal of Media Arts 1.3 (1993): 64-69. Print.
  • ------. Chang in a Void Moon. ‘Living Film Serial’ (1983 – present; 62 episodes as of April 2014). Theatre Production.
  • ------. “Deep Sleep.” Wordplays 5: An Anthology of New American Drama. New York: PAJ, 1986. 223-304. Print.
  • ------. Everything That Rises Must Converge. Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1997. Print.
  • ------. “Faust/How I Rose.” PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. 26.78 (2004): 98-127. Print.
  • ------. Introduction to “White Water.” On New Ground: Hispanic-American Plays. Ed. M.E. Osborn. New York: Theater Communications Group, 1987. 73-142. Print.
  • ------. “Philoktetes.” Theater Magazine (Yale) 25.3 (1994): 71-91. Print.
  • Johnston, David. “Securing the Performability of the Play in Translation.” Drama Translation and Theater Practice. Eds. Sabine Coelsch-Foisner and Holger Klein. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004. 25-38. Print.
  • Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Postdramatic Theater. Trans. Karen Jürs-Munby. London: Routledge, 2009 [1999; trans. 2006]. Print.
  • Lukàcs, Georg. Faust und Faustus: Vom Drama der Menschengattung zur Tragödie der modernen Kunst. Hamburg: Rowolt, 1973. Print.
  • Marlowe, Christopher. Dr. Faustus. Stillwell, KS: Digireads.com Publishing, 2005. Print.
  • Marranca, Bonnie. “Performance as Design: The Mediaturgy of John Jesurun’s Firefall.” PAJ 96 (2010): 16-24. Print.
  • Moninger, Markus. “’I want to rub our noses in it’: Das medienreflexive Theaterkonzept von John Jesurun.” Crossing Media: Theater – Film – Fotografie – Neue Medien. Eds. Christopher Balme and Markus Moninger. Munich: ePODIUM, 2004. 173-188. Print.
  • Patsalidis, Savas. “Re-membered Pain in John Jesurun’s Philoktetes.” SavasPatsalidis,blogspot,com, 2010. Web. 22 Mar. 2014.
  • Rajewsky, Irina O. Intermedialität. Tübingen: A. Francke, 2002. Print.
  • Ryan, Marie-Laure. Avatars of Story. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota P., 2006. Print.
  • Schmidt, Kerstin. “Theatrical Space and Mediatized Culture: John Jesurun’s ‘Pieces in Spaces’.” Space in America: Theory, History, Culture. Eds. Klaus Benesch and Kerstin Schmidt. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. 421-449. Print.
  • Svich, Caridad. “A Natural Force: John Jesurun in Conversation with Caridad Svich.” Trans-Global Readings: Crossing Theatrical Boundaries. Ed. Caridad Svich. Manchester: Manchester UP., 2003. 42-46. Print.
  • Sophocles. Philoctetes. Ed. T. B. L. Webster. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 1970. Print.
  • Stoppard, Tom. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. London: Faber and Faber, 1967. Print.