There is a Dissonance and Density: Disrupting Queer Trauma Through Performative Embodiment Practices

This research-creation thesis presents that through performative actions, Queer performers embody and shift both individual and communal traumas. For this thesis, I have created a Queer performance event series entitled PillOry which had five iterations, wherein I and other Queer performers infiltrate different nontraditional spaces and performatively embody trauma. The exploration in and development of Queer cultural values, beliefs, and political identity is fundamental in our personal trauma investigations. PillOry takes an intersectional approach, to discuss gender identity, sexuality, race, class, and ability as a means to understand and work through Queer trauma. Within this thesis I take a selection of performances presented at Pi*llOry to analyze the event, expose its failures and successes in disrupting trauma through embodiment. This thesis demonstrates how Queer performers use their lived experiences to create work concerning trauma, forming, and engaging a Queer community bound by shared trauma narratives. It is within this Queer performance community that trauma is revisited and transformed to reshape the future.