Some Historic/Some Hysteric at the Clemente Soto Velez Center

New Stage Theatre Company presents Some Historic/Some Hysteric, conceived by Ildiko Nemeth and Jessica Sofia Mitrani, playing at the Clemente Soto Velez Center from 10 Nov - 9 Dec 2006.

Some Historic/Some Hysteric: Since neuropsychology was founded just before the Victorian era, it has undergone a century and a half of growing pains, none of which was more theatrical than the 'Hysteria Shows,' or clinical demonstrations, of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot of Paris during the 1870s and 1880s.

Charcot was particularly interested in the physical manifestations of hysteria. He had his associates draw the postures, gestures and expressions of patients while they experienced dramatic fits. He established a photographic studio where patients were documented during "normal" and "hysterical" states. Public presentations of clinical cases were held each Tuesday, which resembled theatrical performances in which the erotics of display permeated and finally trumped the positivist principles of observation.

The subjects were required to portray their hysterical "type"--they performed their own hysteria. Bribed by the special status they enjoyed in the purgatory of experimentation and threatened with transfer back to the inferno of the incurables, the women patiently posed for the photographs and submitted to presentations of hysterical attacks before the crowds that gathered for Charcot's "Tuesday Lectures."

Directed by Ildiko Nemeth, Some Historic/Some Hysteric features Markus Hirnigel, Elizabeth Dilley, Catherine Correa, Florencia Minniti, Stacia French, Yuki Kawahisa, Mary Round, Nicole Hafner, Ana Valle, Monica Risi and Alexa Poller.

Set design is by Ildiko Nemeth, with costumes by Ildiko Nemeth and Jessica Mitrani and lighting by Momo Parra.