ABSTRACT
Theatrical techniques of collage, intertextuality, intermediality, and ambivalent citation were applied to interweave the world of the 1939 film with the performance personae of the learning disabled artists of Different Light Theatre. The keeping of an archive of devising and performance processes became more important at the time of The Wizard of Oz, in part due to the heightened awareness of having escaped disaster. The Wizard of Oz provided a theatrical framework within which to explore the feelings of the characters/personae of the learning disabled actors based on a book and film intended for children that is at times frightening, sentimental, melodramatic, and grotesque. Still Lives was an attempt to focus on ethical, aesthetic, and political issues by creating a performance involving only three performers: Glen Burrows, Ben Morris, and Isaac Tait. The first of these performances was a collaboration with Free Theatre Christchurch and Richard Gough of the Centre for Performance Research, Aberystwyth, on The Earthquake in Chile.
