Reviewed by:

• Ron Vawter's Life In Performance by Theresa Smalec
• Sean F. Edgecomb

Relying on impressive archival research and original interviews to present "a social history—and ensemble biography" (3), author Theresa Smalec provides a dynamic new account of US actor Ron Vawter (1948-94) that deftly corrects the claims of previous scholarship. Ron Vawter's Life in Performance decisively traces the career and personal life of the titular artist who rose to fame as a member of downtown New York theatre troupes, The Performance Group and The Wooster Group, from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Over a perhaps too economic [End Page 590] introduction and eight subsequent chapters, Smalec's intervention corroborates Vawter's importance as a performer—one who has been eclipsed by his more famous collaborators like Willem Defoe, Spalding Gray, Elizabeth LeCompte, and Richard Schechner—and challenges the longstanding myth surrounding Vawter's life that he "ostensibly came from nowhere" (9). While the narrative presented is linear, Smalec expertly (and even queerly) writes across time, creating a complex constellation of Vawter's career rather than a chronological biography.

The opening chapter proves Smalec's research prowess, diving into Vawter's previously unrecorded history before he joined The Performance Group in 1972. Relying on original interviews, the author traces Vawter's origins in the theatre back to high school and the period he spent as an undergraduate at Siena College starting in 1967. Directing and acting in queer-themed plays such as Edward Albee's The Zoo Story and John Herbert's Fortune in Men's Eyes, Vawter developed an interest in queer performance, Smalec corroborates, that preceded his work in the Manhattan avant-garde theatre scene. While Smalec's account, like previous biographies, confirms that Vawter was enrolled in a Franciscan training program and commissioned into the National Guard, she argues these experiences have been overblown in other biographical accounts.

Chapters 2 and 3 continue to correct the narrative around Vawter's introduction to The Performance Group, his initial time with the group, and his work as the company's general manager. In addition to her archival research and interviews, Smalec describes her embodied methods in these chapters. For instance, to argue against the myth that Vawter stumbled upon a rehearsal when walking home from a military recruiting station at 80 Center Street in 1972, she takes to the streets in an attempt to recreate Vawter's commute, proving that it most likely never happened. She likewise offers a close reading of Vawter's "stealth" performance style (76), which he engaged in part through the method of undressing to complete nudity before each performance. This ritual would become a trademark of his style. Smalec's fascinating analysis of nudity-as-process reads the act as an embodiment of Vawter's still-hidden queer desire. While these chapters are biographically rich, her analysis of these stealth performance practices in particular could be grounds for a more thorough, extensive theoretical exploration.

Examinations of Vawter's lasting impact on The Performance Group and pivotal role in the formation of The Wooster Group continue in chapters 4 and 5. The former includes detailed readings of performances including Sakonnet Point (1975), Rumstick Road (1977), Nayatt School (1978), and Point Judith (an Epilog) (1979). Beyond recounting Vawter's close working relationship with Gray and LeCompte, Smalec traces how projection work originally experimented with by Vawter at Siena College may have influenced The Performance Group's use of projection on live bodies as part of a Brechtian acting process the author terms "standing in" (97). Chapter 5 begins with the professional split between LeCompte and Gray and the founding of The Wooster Group in 1980, focusing on rehearsal processes in one of the most exciting historical critiques of the book. Returning to a reading of Nayatt School from the previous chapter, Smalec rethinks the method of constructing performance via interviews, archives, and critical response—arguing that Vawter was a key player in developing "ensemble autobiographies" (116)—as a new way to think about repertory performance in a historical context. Beyond these performance analyses, Smalec's richly...

 校订者：

• 
  特蕾莎·斯马莱克 （Theresa Smalec） 的罗恩·沃特 （Ron Vawter） 的表演生活
•  肖恩·埃奇科姆

作者特蕾莎·斯马莱克 （Theresa Smalec） 依靠令人印象深刻的档案研究和原始采访来呈现“社会历史和集体传记”（3），对美国演员罗恩·沃特（Ron Vawter，1948-94 年）进行了充满活力的新描述，巧妙地纠正了以前学术界的说法。罗恩·沃特 （Ron Vawter） 的《表演人生》决定性地追溯了这位名义上的艺术家的职业生涯和个人生活，他从 1970 年代到 1990 年代初作为纽约市中心剧团 The Performance Group 和 The Wooster Group 的成员而声名鹊起。在可能过于经济的 [结束第 590 页] 引言和随后的八章中，斯马莱克的干预证实了沃特作为表演者的重要性——他被威廉·笛福、斯伯丁·格雷、伊丽莎白·勒孔特和理查德·谢克纳等更著名的合作者所掩盖——并挑战了围绕沃特生平的长期神话，即他“表面上不知从何而来”（9）。虽然呈现的叙述是线性的，但 Smalec 熟练地（甚至古怪地）跨时空写作，创造了一个复杂的 Vawter 职业生涯星座，而不是按时间顺序排列的传记。

开篇一章证明了 Smalec 的研究能力，深入研究了 Vawter 在 1972 年加入 The Performance Group 之前以前未被记录的历史。依靠原始采访，作者将 Vawter 在剧院的起源追溯到高中以及他从 1967 年开始在锡耶纳学院读本科的那段时间。斯马莱克证实，在爱德华·阿尔比 （Edward Albee） 的《动物园的故事》（The Zoo Story） 和约翰·赫伯特 （John Herbert） 的《男人眼中的财富》等酷儿主题戏剧中导演和表演后，瓦特对酷儿表演产生了兴趣，这在他在曼哈顿前卫戏剧界工作之前就产生了兴趣。虽然斯马莱克的叙述与以前的传记一样，证实沃特参加了方济各会的培训计划并被任命为国民警卫队，但她认为这些经历在其他传记中被夸大了。

第 2 章和第 3 章继续纠正围绕 Vawter 对 The Performance Group 的介绍、他最初在该集团的经历以及他作为公司总经理的工作的叙述。除了她的档案研究和访谈外，Smalec 还在这些章节中描述了她的具体方法。例如，为了反驳 1972 年 Vawter 从中心街 80 号的征兵站走回家时偶然发现彩排的神话，她走上街头，试图重现 Vawter 的通勤经历，证明这很可能从未发生过。她还仔细阅读了 Vawter 的“隐身”表演风格 （76），他部分是通过在每次表演前脱衣服以完成裸体的方法参与的。这种仪式将成为他风格的标志。斯马莱克对裸体作为过程的迷人分析将这一行为解读为 Vawter 仍然隐藏的酷儿欲望的体现。虽然这些章节的传记内容丰富，但她对这些隐身表演实践的分析尤其可以成为更彻底、更广泛的理论探索的基础。

第 4 章和第 5 章继续研究 Vawter 对 The Performance Group 的持久影响以及在 The Wooster Group 成立中的关键作用。前者包括对表演的详细解读，包括 Sakonnet Point （1975）、Rumstick Road （1977）、Nayatt School （1978） 和 Point Judith （an Epilog） （1979）。除了叙述 Vawter 与 Gray 和 LeCompte 的密切工作关系之外，Smalec 还追溯了 Vawter 最初在锡耶纳学院试验的投影工作如何影响了 The Performance Group 在活体上使用投影，作为作者称为“代替”的布莱希特式表演过程的一部分（97）。第 5 章从 LeCompte 和 Gray 之间的专业分裂以及 1980 年 The Wooster Group 的成立开始，重点是本书最激动人心的历史批评之一的排练过程。回到上一章对 Nayatt School 的阅读，Smalec 重新思考了通过访谈、档案和批判性回应构建表演的方法——认为 Vawter 是发展“合奏自传”（116）的关键参与者——作为在历史背景下思考剧目表演的新方式。除了这些性能分析之外，Smalec 还丰富了......