Carla Della Gatta provides a response to the panel. This panel uses frameworks from sound studies, Latina/o studies, theater and performance studies, and theories of affect to explore what we term “sonic (in)civilities”... [ view full abstract ]
Carla Della Gatta provides a response to the panel.
This panel uses frameworks from sound studies, Latina/o studies, theater and performance studies, and theories of affect to explore what we term “sonic (in)civilities” in Latin@ Theater and Performance, or the sounds of Latinidad in Latina/o theater, music, and performance shaped by liminality, dissonance, and discordance. The first presenter, Patricia Herrera, provides a methodological framework for listening to Latina/o performance and theater making practices, including soundtracks of performances and rehearsals, with a focus on listening to the auditory strategies Latinos implement to confront and inflect American theater with racial, ethnic, and gender difference. The next two presenters provide case studies of listening to Latina/o performance. Cathryn Merla-Watson amplifies the sounds of San Diego-based “cholo goth” band Prayers, arguing that the band utilizes minor chords, synthesizers, goth bodily gestures, and song lyrics to sound a queer carnalismo. Marci McMahon tunes to Puerto Rican/Cuban American comedian, writer, and performer Marga Gomez, particularly her most recent work Pound, to argue that Gomez uses “queer comedic gesture” through the voiced body, the performance of accents, miming, and gesture to disrupt heteronormative and state-sanctioned sites of citizenship at the locus of the Latina body.
