Rehearsal for Rejection (2020)

Participatory Performance

Pioneer Works, Ace Hotel

​

Rehearsal for Rejection invites audience members to read aloud their own rejection letters—ranging from grant applications to break-up texts. This mundane open mic posits a space of solidarity to explore the trials and tribulations of the gig economy, the precariousness of the emerging artist, and attendant feelings of shame, fear, and insecurity, typically experienced in isolation. 

 

How can we recognize labor that didn’t bear fruit? By reading rejections out loud together, can we collectively transform a rejection into a form of acceptance? Where does rejection live in our bodies and what might we release through this act?

​

The reading is followed by a participatory workshop exploring the social phenomenon of applause, as an ancient mode of social synchronization and attunement and expression of collective affirmation.