Interview: Jessica Burr and BODY: ANATOMIES OF BEING at New Ohio Theatre

Body: Anatomies of Being is currently at New Ohio Theatre through May 21st. It is both is conceived and directed by Jessica Burr. In the show a trauma surgeon works to repair her patient's internal organs, a painter seeks to expose the raw humanity of his nude model, and a woman journeys back to Chernobyl as she strives to understand the body that is now only partially hers. Body digs into the flesh, organs, bones, systems, and movement of the human body as art and as machine. Broadwayworld.com had the fascinating opportunity to interview Burr about her career, Blessed Unrest and Body: Anatomies of Being.

Jessica Burr is the founding Artistic Director of Blessed Unrest "theatre for the adventurous," for which she has directed and choreographed numerous productions. Burr teaches and directs at colleges and universities across the country. She was honored with the 2011 Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, and the 2013 NY Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Choreography/Movement (nominee for the same in 2015).

What was your earliest interest in theatre??

I started directing when I was eight years old. I staged an avant garde adaptation of Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter" in my grandparents' dining room. The audiences were small, and there was a lot of controversy among the actors (my younger cousins) about casting, but those were my first attempts at building my own reality, which is still at the heart of what I do.

Tell us a little about your education.

I earned a BA in theatre and dance from Bard College. I then began my career with an attempt to get back to the "essence of theatre". For me this meant getting a one-way ticket to Scotland with home-made papier-mâché masks and a sleeping bag. I became a traveling street performer in an attempt to test my instincts and find out first-hand what moves people. I had one of those shows that make children cry, and I rigorously alienated audiences from Edinburgh to Marrakech with my first forays into experimental theatre. Since then my form has changed, but that first jump solidified something about the way I work: I take risks that terrify me. They are not arbitrary, and I conduct my experiments with other performers now, which has softened my approach considerably. But at each beginning I still feel that drive to move people in unexpected ways.

Who have been some inspiring figures in your career?

My medium is human beings. Bodies, words, memory, time, ideas, history, sculpture, movement, stories, the unspeakable, secrets - these are some of the things that I get to work with every day. And every day I'm amazed by the privilege and also the responsibility of being able to work in this form.

I get to work intimately with amazing people. They come from all over the world, and we are able to share and feed our passion, to create a common language, to define and redefine what it means to communicate.

The chance to peek into someone else's reality or experience inspires me. The chance to create a space where an actor can make something that they didn't know they were capable of inspires me.

What prompted your founding of Blessed Unrest?

Since those plays in my grandparents' house I had dreamt of having my own theatre company. I knew it would be an ensemble, and that we would travel the world.

In 1999, I met collaborators who I trusted and who scared me. I felt a quickening and I listened to it. Since then, this company has been the focus of my artistic life.

How is Body: Anatomies of Being unique to other pieces you have created in your career?

I was compelled to begin working on a piece from the beginning, which for me is bodies in space. No ideas, no title, no themes, no narrative, and no recognizable structure. Just bodies, space, and light. We don't need anything more than this to begin. Within our bodies is contained our history, breath, memory, movement, voice, stories, secrets, the unspeakable, inherent understanding of time and physics, ideas, language, passions, and ancestry, to name a few elements. This is enough to fuel infinite plays. Because the performers of Blessed Unrest train together regularly, they can work with very little imposed structure. We can essentially enter a room, and say "Go!" It's thrilling.

After some initial workshops, we began working with a trauma surgeon, and a painter of nudes. Their very different perspectives on the body exploded our own understandings, and eventually became narratives within the piece. Because we had two years to develop Body, we were able to work very collaboratively with everyone involved, and other narrative lines began entering the room and weaving themselves into a structure.

Tell us a little about cast and crew of the show.

The work the cast is doing every night is incredibly bold, open, and complicated. An audience member said to me after the show "Intimacy as a revolutionary act. That's what they're doing."

They stand up there, and their lives come pouring out. They have been passionately committed to the creation of this piece and to each other for two years, and the trust and love they feel for each other is palpable.

What do you want audiences to know about the show?

Occasionally at Blessed Unrest we make a piece of theatre that, when asked what it is about, I throw up my hands or else murmur something about exploring what it means to be human. I realize now that really if you want to know you must come to the work. Enter our space at a specific time, disconnect from your telephone, and take the ride. If I could convey the experience of seeing this show in a sentence, I would be a poet. Body is one of those shows, and I now recognize it as one of the most complex that we have made, and I love being able to continue investigating what it is about.

For the future??

I'll keep making plays. It's what I do.

Anything else you want BWW readers to know.

You'll be glad you saw it.

Bodies: Anatomies of Being will be at the New Ohio Theatre, located at 154 Christopher Street (between Greenwich and Washington Streets) in New York City. Performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 5pm, and Mondays at 7pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at http://www.NewOhioTheatre.org or by calling 212-352-3101. For more information you can also visit http://BlessedUnrest.org.

Warning: Bodies will appear in their natural state.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Jessica Burr