I am the utterance of my name
A music-theater piece on Mary Magdalene, created and performed by composer/percussionist Nathan Davis and playwright/actress Sylvia Milo
For 2000 years, societies have projected onto Mary Magdalene a wide range of roles – witness, prostitute, priestess, goddess, wife, witch, mother – archetypes that adhere closely to attitudes held about femininity.
I am the utterance of my name gives first-person voice and agency to each of these, while illuminating the problematic nature of labels given by male authors and religious systems to venerate and denigrate women. Using ancient texts and primary sources, the piece uncovers roots of our present gender inequality, male privilege, body rights, etc. – our social inheritance. It also highlights the erasure of female-empowered texts such as “The Gospel of Mary”, and the appeal of Mary Magdalene as an icon of the modern Goddess movement.
Media Highlights
Jessie Montgomery + Third Coast Percussion at DePaul University
DePaul University, Holtschneider Performance Center - 2330 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614
M. Lamar & The Living Earth Show: MACHINES AND OTHER INTERGALACTIC TECHNOLOGIES OF THE SPIRIT at EMPAC
EMPAC at Rensselaer
Dancing to the Music of You
The LGBT Center (208 W 13th St, Manhattan)