Welcome to The No I Know Podcast, where we shed light on what we think we
know. Before we dive into the episode and it’s context, a little primer on what the Six Viewpoints are:
Shape, Space, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story.
The seed of the entire work of The Six Viewpoints is found in the simple act of standing in space. From this perspective the artist is invited to read and be educated by the lexicon of daily experience. The information of space, the experience of time, the familiarity of shapes, the qualities and rules of kinetics in movement, the ways of logics, that stories are formed and the states of being and emotional exchanges that constitute the process of communication between living creature. These are the six materials named in The Six Viewpoints that constitute basic deconstructed theater. Working directly with these materials the artist begins to learn of performance through the essential languages as an independent intelligence.
Now to my backstory of my experience with Six Viewpoints.
In high school, I knew I wanted to attend NYU and when I auditioned and was
accepted in, it was suggested I try The Experimental Theatre Wing. I have
reflected since on why out of all the acting studios at Tisch School of The Arts, I
was placed there. In the doc film about ETW, one of the founding teachers-Mary
Overlie (who was one of my teachers) said “that most students at ETW were
those who asked a lot of questions and were very strong in personalities, who
participated in the world community as an experimenter, with serious focus. A
strong desire to CREATE. This is true. I felt we were given permission to
improvise, flexibility to go to my edge and past it.. at times in seeming madness,
discomfort..the dark and the light, to experience all states of being, as acts of the
soul and the KEY was in letting my body guide that experience, not the analytical
mind. In one of my acting classes there with Andre Gregory, I saw that when an
actor physically exhausted/released themselves (ALA the work of Grotowski) ,
something cracked open and when you opened the voice and “acted ” from THAT
place, it was operating from another level …(Saskia Hecht-another teacher there
said) you are using yourself but forgetting your “self”, the inventiveness at
Experimental Theater wing that both I witnessed and performed in, was
breathtaking and changed the course of my development. I am so thankful to that
person at my audition who saw that in me. And here we are in 2026 and
listeners, I am excited to say that our guests today are a part of that world, one of
whom is…
WENDELL BEAVERS: A founding faculty and Director (1985-90) of NYU’s
Experimental Theater Wing (ETW) and founder of Naropa University’s innovative
MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance Program. An early collaborator with
Viewpoints originator Mary Overlie creating and teaching Viewpoints curriculum
at ETW from its inception in 1978 until moving to Naropa University in 2003. He
is also a member of the founding artists group of Movement Research (NYC,
1978 to present), directing that collective and recently teaching in the Movement
Research at MOMA series. He is currently teaching and mentoring a growing
global community of teachers, performing and devising artists, writers and
theorists who have been influenced by the Viewpoints work and his own
performance practice and somatic research. He is an advisor to The Mary
Overlie Legacy Project which is dedicated to the further unfolding of the
Viewpoints as a body of work in the service of change and radical transformation.
And are other guests today are from that Mary Overlie Legacy Project Team-
Sophia Treanor:
Sophia is the artistic director of the Six Viewpoints Institute and co-founder of the
Mary Overlie Legacy Project. She worked with Mary Overlie, originator of the Six
Viewpoints, as a student, teaching assistant, dancer, and close companion
throughout the United States, Europe, and China from 2011 until Overlie’s death
in June of 2020.
Sophia is a director, performer, educator and Biodynamic Craniosacral therapist
based in New York City and British Columbia.
Deborah Black:
Deborah Black is a dance theatre artist, writer, and teacher. She is currently a
PhD student in the Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies Program at UC
Berkeley. Deborah’s teaching and performance practice is informed by the
meeting of dance and theatre and includes perceptual practices like Six
Viewpoints improvisation, Grotowski, and Hamilton Floor Barre alongside
postmodern philosophy. She seeks to unpack and deepen these intersections in
her doctoral research bringing critical theories into conversation with
experimental art practices.
Tune in and Enjoy! ~Ilyana and James (*ALL MUSIC AND LYRICS IN THIS EPISODE WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JAMES HARRELL AND ILYANA KADUSHIN)
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