Three Eleanors: A Solar Powered Paper Doll Production
7:00 PM, Friday, April 18, 2014
Student Union Building - Matador Room
Free & Open to the Public
Devised as an integration of art and performance, the play was co-written by Dr. Dorothy Chansky and Karen
Wurl in collaboration with visual artist Carol Flueckiger. Dr. Chansky also directs.
Dr. Chansky conceived of the initial project as a way to investigate celebrity. Her questions — who gets to have
celebrity, and how does it circulate — are brought forth as she spotlights three iconic women who shared the
same first name: Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor of Aquitaine and actress Eleonora Duse. Along with the historic
Eleanors, the piece also includes fictional fans, students and employees who “swirl around the heroines,
offering responses that range from rapture to resentment.” Chansky asks, “How is it that Eleonora Duse — one
of the most famous actresses of her day and the first woman to grace the cover of Time magazine — is now
nearly forgotten, while Eleanor of Aquitaine is an iconic fixture of textbook history?”
Working with several graduate students as an independent study, Chansky said Wurl, a doctoral candidate with
an emphasis in playwriting, is “largely responsible for scenes involving the famous women. The event’s cast
includes Courtney Brown, Elaine Bromka, Leticia Delgado, Nikole Irion, Elizabeth Parks, and Teresa
Stranahan. The stage manager is Ben Slate, with technical direction and sound design by Emmett Buhmann.
Surrounding the Three Eleanors performance will be short presentations by artists from The School of Art who
present studio activities on the stage. Through video clips, artist statements, drawing and active looking these
artworks consider portrait of woman as still life or environment.
Slip of Memory, Leah Brown, BFA candidate, Texas Tech University
De Cadence, Hannah Dean, MFA candidate, Texas Tech University
Declaration of Sentiments, Carol Flueckiger, Associate Professor Art, Texas Tech
I Became an Image, Yasaman Moussavi, MFA candidate, Texas Tech University
