http://www.syndicatemizzou.org Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:27:46 GMT en-us 40 Center for eResearch Connecting you with the University of Missouri’s innovative research and creative activity http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/images/logo.png 384 80 http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/carver/ipod/Carver01.m4v Education http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/carver/ipod/Carver01.m4v Heather Carver describes herself as “a performance studies artist/scholar,” someone who investigates an issue through performance—“so we study autobiography, and we do autobiographical performance.” Carver teaches several kinds of creative writing, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, in adaptation and performance of literature for theatre and the screen. She also co-directs the Writing for Performance Program, which helps students adapt different kinds of writing for the stage or screen, including poetry, short stories, autobiography, or ethnography. And Carver serves as creator and artistic director of the Life and Literature Performance series to showcase original and adapted work by MU students for the stage. 3 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:56:49 GMT http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/carver/ipod/Carver06.m4v Education http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/carver/ipod/Carver06.m4v Since October of 2006, Carver has been developing _Booby Prize_, a comedy about the unfunny subject of breast cancer. “It’s a one-woman show featuring me [laughs],” and how she was “lucky” to be the one of every seven women to get the disease. Through _Booby Prize_, which is ever evolving, Carver is able to combine her interest in social activism, women’s health, and autobiography: “I decided that I _could_ have breast cancer and still have a sense of humor, and still do my work. And so that’s when _Booby Prize_, you know, became born, the idea that—unfortunately—I won the prize. I won the Booby Prize, which you don’t want to win, you don’t want to be the 1 out of 7 who wins, but I won, and so that’s how I start off the performance.” Much of the performance features Carver performing actual stories that happened to her, infusing humor into the reality of her situation. At the conclusion of _Booby Prize_, Carver warns the audience against expecting closure and a happy ending. Despite the clean bill of health at her last medical checkup, the possibility of cancer returning lingers on, and so Carver reminds the audience, “I don’t have a pretty ending; my ending is still up in the air.” Among audience members, Carver has observed not only laughter and tears, as might be expected, but “people doing both at the same time, and not quite knowing what to do about it.” The thread that runs through _Booby Prize_—like Carver’s other scholarly and creative projects—is storytelling. Some of the stories are painful, and some are funny. Either way, Carver always tries “to keep it raw.” 3 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:58:21 GMT