Performance Art

Stories

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Pub Date 05 Oct 2021 | Archive Date 04 Oct 2021

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Description

Part of our socialization is the urge to perform. We perform images of ourselves for others. For some, the urge is so great and the talent sufficient that we become performers. Performance Art is a series of short stories about performers and performances that are extreme—fire-eaters, knife-throwers, stand-up comedians, escape-artists, weight-loss artists—why we watch them, and why they do what they do. David Kranes dives into the inner lives of these risk-takers, exploring the allures and the costs of “performance.”  His characters are unpredictable, quirky, and sometimes bizarre, but Kranes also reveals their humanity and insecurities. The result is a collection that is engagingly unique, sometimes comical, ironic, heart-tugging, and full of unexpected insights and delights.

Part of our socialization is the urge to perform. We perform images of ourselves for others. For some, the urge is so great and the talent sufficient that we become performers. Performance Art is a...


Advance Praise

Performers are raving about Performance Art!

“Are some people born with that urge to share themselves in public? To behave privately, emotionally, majestically while strangers watch? To perform? David Kranes in stunningly singular fashion explores this need to expose the gifted self, re-inventing the way we look at celebrity. The stories are a raw and intimate journey into the rewards, the risks, and the souls of the stand-ups and fire-eaters, the daredevils and magicians, the people who ‘show off’ for us. And this of course includes Mr. Kranes himself. His prose does backflips; it’s brilliantly manic, beautifully mad, perfectly paced. And very funny.”

Ethan Philips, actor and playwright

“Performers have one foot in this world and one in that of illusion, or maybe better, imagination. It’s the liminal space between the two that David Kranes, in his own sleight-of-hand performance, brilliantly explores. His tough, flint-like prose, unsparing in its search for what is true, reminds us that one person’s side-show is someone else’s main act, and, it gives us new ways to look at the world. Funny, disturbing, and in the end, deeply moving.”

Bill Harley, entertainer and musician

“I love the sound of a ’world-beyond-traffic,’ and the ’no comprehension of next,’ in these stories. . . . It’s funny and powerful how Kranes depicts the tick, tick, tick of the mind. And he did make me think, oh, yes, sometimes a person’s mind can be a stranger. A dark stranger.”

Russell Davis, juggler and playwright in residence at the People’s Light and Theatre Company

Performers are raving about Performance Art!

“Are some people born with that urge to share themselves in public? To behave privately, emotionally, majestically while strangers watch? To perform?...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781647790141
PRICE $22.00 (USD)
PAGES 224

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Featured Reviews

I really enjoyed reading this anthology of short stories of different types of performance artists. The book itself is laid out clearly and concisely while the content remains interesting. I ended up liking this book more than I had expected but I think this would be an important book for any shelf.

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