Brooklyn, NY
To scroll through site, click ">>" at the bottom of each page. Pics are from oldest to newest.
Also, see CPT video lab page: http://cpt.blip.tv/
To contact CPT admin, e-mail RT5LE9 [åt] aol [døt] cøm
Vancouver, Canada
Margot Butler, Rodrigo Toscano, Mariner Janes (KSW Collective Archives)
Vancouver, Canada
Donato Mancini, Andrea Actis, Rodrigo Toscano, Nikki Reimer (photo by KWS Collective Archives)
Bowery, NYC
Brenden Lorber & Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Jen Scappetone)
St. Mark's Church, NY
Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Erica Kaufman)
University of Miami, Ohio
Linda Russo & Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Lorraine Graham)
San Francisco
Dan Fisher, Laura Elrick, Rodrigo Toscano, & Stephanie Young (photo by Michael Nicoloff)
San Francisco
Laura Elrick & Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Stephanie Young)
University of Miami, Ohio
Rodrigo Toscano and Tom Orange (photo by Lorraine Graham)
New York
Kim Rosenfield, Laura Elrick, Chris Alexander, Myung Mi Kim, Kristen Gallagher, Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Erica Kaufman)
San Francisco
Brent Cunningham & Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Michael Nicoloff)
San Francisco
Dan Fisher & David Brazil (photo by Cynthia Sailers)
"The Collapsible Poetics Theater (CPT) is a particular form and practice of Poetics Theater (PT). Poetics Theater is one of the Poetic Arts (other PA’s would include visual poetry, sound poetry, textual-experimental poetry, conceptual poetry, lyrical & song poetry, movie-telling, etc)." -- Rodrigo Toscano
San Francisco
Jocelyn Saidenberg & David Brazil (photo by Cynthia Sailers)
"The text’s polysemic qualities, its distant-associative valences, its trope recombinatory potential, its very motility, is what aerates into the performance space, is what comes into 'contact' with those in the 'contact zone'." -- Rodrigo Toscano
San Francisco
Jocelyn Saidenberg & Dan Fisher (photo by Cynthia Sailers)
San Francisco
David Brazil & Dan Fisher (photo by Cynthia Sailers)
"Reading from the page in hand is the moment one of the PT. The (physical, mental) act of grappling with the page is not to be thought of as a 'pre-performative' or 'as-yet-unpolished' moment. It is infolded into the art. Perusing the page, fondling it, playing with it, drawing it close, batting it away, all this is the core body-language of PT. All psychic tension, release, lunging and repelling comes from this moment." -- Rodrigo Toscano
San Francisco
Jocelyn Saidenberg, David Brazil, Dan Fisher, Stephanie Young (photo by Cynthia Sailers)
"The tempo of any given PT piece, in fact, is to be found through this activity [of aerating the page], and most certainly not through the 'the study' of 'a character' in 'a situation'." -- Rodrigo Toscano
Olympia, WA
Jason Conger, Rodrigo Toscano, Riva Roller, Clare Alexa Sammons (photo by Laura Elrick)
"And given that each entity is as equally endowed with tempo-power as the next, and given that each is completely independent of the other (herein lies the anarcho-communistic politics of the contact-group) the whole notion of 'major' and 'minor' characters is anathema to the CPT." -- Rodrigo Toscano
Jason Conger, Rodrigo Toscano, Riva Roller, Clare Alexa Sammons (photo by Laura Elrick)
Olympia, WA
Lil Luce, Holly Melgard (photo by Laura Elrick)
"To wit, the threat of each entity completely re-routing or even scuttling a given reading—through intentionally messed up intonations of a given text—remains constant." -- Rodrigo Toscano
New York
Rodrigo Toscano & Laura Elrick (photo by Jason Conger)
Alexandria, VA
Rodrigo Toscano, Tom Orange, Jeremy Gardner (photo by Kaplan Harris)
Alexandria, VA
Rodrigo Toscano, Jeremy Gardner, Tom Orange (photo by Kaplan Harris)
"CPT intends to stand to the hard left of social life, so that the scaffolding of the language that constitutes our social lives can have 'play', so that PULSE (as that’s what we call ideological mitochondrial activity) can have its say near-criminal selfish 'say' (hooray)." -- Rodrigo Toscano
Alexandria, VA
Kelly Brown, Jeremy Gardner, Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Kaplan Harris)
“The main 'scenario' at hand (again, literally) for each entity (and the contact-group by extension), is the choice, bodily choice to engage Force, Oppression, Hegemony, and the Live Bait of Liberation.” -- Rodrigo Toscano
Alexandria, Virginia
Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Mel Nichols)
"Through poetic arcing of pulse moments, each entity hails the others, each is aware of each other’s presence, though direct (vain!) imbroglios are avoided so that the contact-zone remains as free of egotisms as
possible." -- Rodrigo Toscano
Alexandria, Virginia
Tom Orange, Rodrigo Toscano, Jeremy Gardner (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Tom Orange & Jeremy Gardner (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Gregory Stuart (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Gregory Stuart (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Gregory Stuart & Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Rod Smith & Tom Orange (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Jeremy Gardner & Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Gregory Stuart (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Gregory Stuart, Jason Conger, Rodrigo Toscano (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Gregory Stuart (photo by Mel Nichols)
Alexandria, Virginia
Gregory Stuart, Rodrigo Toscano, Jason Conger (photo by Mel Nichols)