OFF THE WALL traces the process of a community poetry writing and performance workshop taught by Claire Blotter based on paintings in the Marin Arts Council landscape and abstract show. From first viewing of paintings to writing and then, performance, this video follows how writers collaborate with artists to write poems and then creatively use paintings as backdrops and essential elements of public performance.
MULTIMEDIA POETRY PERFORMANCES
- 1991 BLACKBIRD, SING!: Wrote and performed as Quail Mother in musical theater with trapeze ballet, projections and performance poetry with a cast of 20 adults & children portraying threatened migratory songbirds at Bolinas Community Center. Funded by a Marin Community Foundation Grant, the Flow Fund and private donations.
- 1989 WALL OF SILK: Wrote and performed poetry with electronic music, dance, aikido and ritual elements in collaboration with musician, Jay Yarnall, dancers and actors
- 1987 THE RETURN OF THE COOKIE MOTHER: Wrote, directed and performed in environmental theater piece with masked actors and oversized sets about childhood abuse and healing. Unlimited supply of milk and chocolate chip cookies baked in theater kitchen after the show at Bolinas Community Center.
- 1985 CROSSES: Wrote and performed one woman show produced by BRAVA! For Women in Arts in San Francisco about traditional Navajo struggle to protect their sacred land at Big Mountain, Arizona.
- 1982 MUD WOMEN & OTHER PERFORMANCE POEMS: Wrote and performed poetic monologues with video of talk by Roberta Blackgoat, Navajo elder, presented at Bolinas Community Center, Louden Nelson Center in Santa Cruz and Video Free America in San Francisco as benefit for traditional Navajos in Big Mountain Arizona.
- 1981 PROM GAME: a one woman collaborative show produced by Studio Eremos in Project Artaud in the Mask & Myth Festival
- 1980 FOREST, THE WAY WE STAND: Wrote and directed multimedia poetry performance with sound track of children and loggers talking about trees interspersed with chainsaw sound effects, 2 slide projections to simulate a redwood forest with third central projector showing a women's life cycle alternating with tree's growth stages. Two contact improvisational dancers performed with ritual elements in protest piece against chainsawing of Redwood Estates forest in Santa Cruz Mountains. Presented at S.F State University Student Center and a Los Gatos loft.
GUERILLA THEATER
- 2020 KEENING PROCESSION through downtown San Rafael. Women mourners dressed in black with veils carrying flowers to protest high Marin County rents driving artists to move away. Video short below.
- 2011 KEENING PROCESSION through SF Financial District conceived by Claire Blotter to protest and mourn the deaths on both sides of the Iraq war. Women mourners dressed in black with veils and arms of flowers with "knight" in suit carrying a protest cross followed by members of Fat Chance Belly Dance troupe. Participants vowed to return each month to protest, but war was officially ended the following month.
- 1990 Director of Bolinas Guerrilla Theater Troupe in first actions with masks and movement to protest clear cutting of Northern California Redwood Forests: "Revenge of the Spotted Owls" at Bolinas Community Center and outdoors at Redwood Summer near Fort Bragg, California
- 1987 Actions on train track on route to Concord Naval Weapons the day after Brian Wilson was hit by a train and lost both legs as he protested shipment of nuclear arms. Solo action: chanting the "ahhh" heart sound to two soldiers who were consecutively pulled from the guard line when they kept lowering their batons. Protestors also removed train tracks.
- 1983 MUD WOMAN monologue performed in a white suit in the streets of San Francisco Financial District during business hours to call attention to the devastation to the sacred land at Big Mountain and the threat to traditional Navajo elders by mining interests
- 1982 Collaborated and helped lead "sheep herding" through the San Francisco Financial District culminating in a die-in of 30 sheep/actors at downtown corporate headquarters to protest the threat to traditional Navajo sheep herders by Peabody Coal in Four Corners, Arizona
