This dance theater exploration of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas grapples with their complex artistic and political legacies and questions the concepts of genius and biographical accuracy. The script, score, and movement are derived from Stein and Toklas’s writings, contemporary and postmodern dance, and theatrical devising methods.

It’s about Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, but it’s also about all of us. It’s about how our readings of history often say more about our contemporary concerns than about history’s “truths.” It’s about the continuous present and beginning again and again and again. It’s about what to do with historical figures who don’t fit our Marvel-brained need for heroes and villains. It’s about when queerness and radical artistic vision meet fascist sympathies and sexism. It’s about art that tells you something but leaves you with more questions than answers.

This piece was developed with the support of:

Emerging Artists Theatre’s Spark Theatre Festival NYC

Moulin/Belle’s 2024 Artist in Residence Program

MOtiVE Brooklyn’s 2023 For The Artists! Residency Program

Individual Donors