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The effectiveness of nonfiction storytelling through live performance

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The effectiveness of nonfiction storytelling through live performance

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Content Copyright 2023 Viktoria Capek
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NONFICTION STORYTELLING THROUGH LIVE
PERFORMANCE
By
Viktoria Capek
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION AND
JOURNALISM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM (THE ARTS))
May 2023

ii
Dedication
To any person who has been faced with the decision to choose one passion over another,
there is a way you can pursue both. If that way does not already exist, create it.

iii
Acknowledgements
This work is the culmination of several people who believed in my incidental vision and
helped me build the path to bring that vision to life.
This thesis has been guided by the gracious hands of my chair, Oscar Garza. In his first
year as a professor in academia, he allowed me a space to create without limitations, despite
there being no precedent to follow for a research project including the caliber of experimentation
put forth in my work. I am thankful to my thesis committee members Willa Seidenberg, who
encouraged my decision to attend Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism to
pursue this research, and Madison Moore, who opened my eyes to the world of performance
studies, an academic lens on which much of this research is hinged upon. Additionally, I am
thankful to Professor Alan Abrahamson for pushing me to be diligent and authentic in my work
without fear of what others think of me or my accomplishments. Thanks to Dr. António Damásio
for his use of and operation of Cammilleri Hall, the venue used per the performance experiment
divulged in this work. Thanks also to University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for
giving me the time and resources to research and grow.
I will always be grateful for the friendship of my cohort member Grace Murray whose
belief in this work and my ability to accomplish it garnered its success. I am also thankful to
Grace for her assistance in the performance put forth for this research.
My partner Whitney Butler gave me more than I can express throughout this whole
project. Her creative expertise and dedication to the performance put forth for this research is
unmatched, as is her unwavering love and support in me and this vision.
I am indebted to Yasna Vismale, Diego Dela Rosa and Masha Cherezova, the artists who
boldly put forth their most vulnerable stories before an audience for this thesis. This work would

iv
not have been possible without your trust in me and this vision. Yasna, Diego and Masha, you
have an incredible gift to share with the world and it will be forever an honor that you invested
that gift in this work.
Finally, I am thankful for Taylor Priday. Taylor was on the other side of the country and
at the other end of a phone call when she told me that everything I’m passionate about falls back
on storytelling. It’s because of her I found the inspiration to bring my worlds of theatre and
journalism to life for this work.
Thank you will never be enough.

v
Table of Contents
Dedication…………………………………………………………………………………............ii
Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………..iii
List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………….vi
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...……...vii
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..………1
Chapter 1: Crossing the fields
THE LIVING NEWSPAPER AS EVIDENCE…………………………………………...4
THE MOTH AS EVIDENCE……………………………………………………………..6
PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY AS EVIDENCE…………………………………..8
Chapter 2: The common thread
JOURNALISM AS STORYTELLING………………………………………………….11
ART AS STORYTELLING……………………………………………………………..12
Chapter 3: “Perception of Time: a live storytelling experience”
THE EXPERIMENT…………………………………………………………………….15
THE PERFORMANCE………………………………………………………………….18
THE RESPONSE………………………………………………………………………...24
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….28
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..32
Appendices
Appendix A: “Perception of Time: a live storytelling experience” digital ‘zine………...34

vi
List of Figures
Figure 1. The playbill for the March 21, 1936 production of
“Triple-A Plowed Under” at the Biltmore Theatre, New York.
Music Division. (Photo, Library of Congress)…………………………………….5

Figure 2. Poster designed by Viktoria Capek for “Perception of Time.”…………………..17
Figure 3. Yasna Vismale performing “Coming Home” for
“Perception of Time.” (Photo, Viktoria Capek)………………………………….19

Figure 4. Diego Dela Rosa performing “Teacher’s Pet” for
“Perception of Time.” (Photo, Viktoria Capek)………………………………….21

Figure 5. Masha Cherezova performing “Lebedya” for
“Perception of Time.” (Photo, Viktoria Capek)………………………………….22

Figure 6. Yasna Vismale, Diego Dela Rosa, Masha Cherezova and
Viktoria Capek during the audience discussion part of
“Perception of Time.” (Photo, Viktoria Capek)………………………………….24

Figure 7. Pie charts depicting percentage responses to questions
about “Perception of Time.”……………………………………………………..26

vii
Abstract
This thesis is about the effectiveness of personal, nonfiction storytelling through the
means of live performance in front of an audience. That is in direct opposition to forms of
nonfiction storytelling, formally known as journalism, through traditional means of print,
broadcast and digital media — media where the audience is distanced from the stories being told.
A way to measure this effectiveness is through the audience response to a stylized and dynamic
performance, orchestrated in a theatrical space for this study. The referenced performance, titled
“Perception of Time: a live storytelling experience,” showcased work from performing artists
who shared original stories related to the theme perception of time. Each story’s impact on the
audience, presentation and clarity, and overall memorability and connection to the stories
presented are taken into consideration when surveying the effectiveness of this mode of
storytelling. This theatrical, journalistic presentation is heavily influenced by studies of
performance ethnography and its consideration of the body during live performance in retelling
stories and sharing collected information. The research accessed in this thesis will also
investigate historic and modern forms of this type of storytelling, such as the 1930s Living
Newspaper, a theatrical production of current events and social issues adapted for American
audiences from a propaganda technique used by Soviet Russia during the 1910s. This project
combines information processed through personal experience, research and performance
experimentation to gauge the feasibility of telling journalistic stories this way more commonly in
the future.

1
Introduction
I was 20 years old the first time I saw Joe Masteroff’s Cabaret, at a community theatre in
Dahlonega, Georgia. I remember sitting in the worn seats, aghast at the final scene where the
character of The Emcee was shot in the head by a German Nazi in front of the audience. Just as
the blast from the gun went off, the stage lights went dark and all you heard was a roaring
explosion. When I learned the musical was based partly on Christopher Isherwood’s
autobiography, The Berlin Stories, it resonated with me no other history lesson ever had.
As a queer woman watching this performance and understanding how my openness about
my orientation could have ended in The Emcee’s same fate during Germany’s Weimar era, I felt
compelled to share my story and lived experiences through any means possible. I saw myself
reflected in theatre and began a journey of self-discovery and exploration of how I could bring
that to others. Seven years later, I feel the same pang in my stomach writing this essay I did that
night in the theatre, a revelatory ode to the power of storytelling through live performance — the
cornerstone of this text.
***
We are living at the start of a 21st-Century Renaissance. The way society functions has
changed following a period of global trauma and suppression of human interaction during the
inaugural spike of, and subsequent lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic — the spread
of an infectious respiratory illness resulting in millions of deaths worldwide starting in 2020. The
interconnection of peoples’ lives relies heavily on technology (a movement that was already in
motion but exacerbated during the pandemic) and the consumption of stories through traditional
forms of print, broadcast and digital journalism — media in which the audience is distanced from
the stories being told. The physical separation of communities has weakened our ability to listen

2
to others without distraction, relate to them and feel inspired to share our own experiences in
return.
There is also a critical need for modern artists to express themselves through creative
means, a need caused by a silencing of the performing arts during the pandemic. Much like the
European Renaissance following the outbreak of the bubonic plague, the rejuvenation of artists
and the arts during this time marks a period of great emotional significance hinged on truth-
telling and narrative work.
1

In opposition to the relational strain worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, and in
support of artists’ desire to chronicle and create, there is room for intentional crossover between
the storytelling traditions of journalism and art — specifically, performing arts, or theatre, music
and dance.
2
The performing arts embrace a sense of liveness, presenting stories directly to in-
person audiences. Performance is a powerful medium transcending other methods of storytelling
because it cannot be experienced, exactly re-created or otherwise circulated outside of its
existence in the present; once it does so, it becomes something other than performance.
3
The
ephemerality of the performing arts leave a lasting impression the way storytelling through forms
of visual art and traditional journalism cannot. It is more effective for artists to share their own
existent and timely stories directly to audiences through a live and present medium rather than a
mediator regurgitating their story through various other forms. Trained critics can help interpret a

1
“Renaissance Era: A Resource Guide: Introduction.” Research Guides. Accessed December 11,
2022. https://guides.loc.gov/renaissance-era-resources.

2
Schechner, Richard. “Performance Studies: An Introduction.” 2020.

3
Phelan, Peggy. “Unmarked: The Politics of Performance.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism 52, no. 4 (1993): 491.

3
performance, or a gifted writer can describe a work, but there is no substitute for the experience
of being witness to the story being told by a performer.
I have attempted to prove this assumption by conducting a performance experiment that
is explained in detail later in this text. Before providing notes on this experiment — including its
theme, who was involved, event logistics, and a recount of the performance and audience
response to the performance — I will explain why a study like this is relevant, using supporting
information collected from interviews with professional storytellers (Karen Golden), artists
(Susan Silton, Tina El Gamal) and experts in the field of performance ethnography (Omi Joni L.
Jones), along with research pertaining to the performing arts and journalism, and instances in
which the two have successfully overlapped, starting with the Living Newspaper.

4
Chapter 1: Crossing the fields

THE LIVING NEWSPAPER AS EVIDENCE
Likely the most widescale example of this concept — overlapping journalism and the
performing arts — emerged with The Living Newspaper and its descendants. The Living
Newspaper was a Depression-era creation of the Federal Theatre Project, a subset of the Works
Progress Administration.
4
In an effort to provide work for the unemployed, the Federal Theatre
Project produced more than 2,700 stage productions across the nation from 1935-1939. The
Living Newspaper unit dramatized newspaper articles, presenting stories “with the objectiveness
of an Associated Press news report and with the vividness of an acted play,” covering relevant
topics from farming to the housing crisis to public health.
The American Living Newspaper derived from similar efforts in Soviet Russia and
Vienna from nearly two decades earlier. In 1919, the Central Committee of the Soviet Union
Communist Party “advocated for public readings of the news, illustrated with ‘demonstrations,’
illuminated by cinema and magic lantern shows, and ‘concert numbers’ to ensure the
dissemination of news and revolutionary propaganda amongst the illiterate.”
5
This resulted in the
formation of various theatrical groups that presented the day’s issues to the public until 1928.
Meanwhile, in 1922 Vienna, the father of psychodrama, Jacob Levy Moreno, established Das
Stegreiftheater (Theatre of Spontaneity). Moreno encouraged improvised performances of the
day’s news, which he called “dramatized newspaper.”

4
Colclough, Joanna. "Living Newspapers: When News Made the Theatre." Library of Congress
Blogs. August 16, 2022.

5
Casson, JW. "Living Newspaper: Theatre and Therapy." TDR: The Drama Review, (2000):
107-122. Accessed December 2, 2022.

5

Figure 1. The playbill for the March 21, 1936 production of “Triple-A Plowed Under” at the
Biltmore Theatre, New York. Music Division. (Photo, Library of Congress)

While this abstraction of news and theatre essentially vanished by 1940, variations of the
Living Newspaper materialized over time. The Chicago-based Jackalope Theatre Company pays
modern-day tribute to the dramatization of news through an annual festival.
6
In 2022, the
company commissioned six playwrights to write about the most provoking news stories of the
year for the Living Newspaper Festival, including topics such as anti-transgender youth laws in
Texas.
In an interview, Jackalope managing director Tina El Gamal called the festival a cult
favorite in Chicago’s Armory Park neighborhood and surrounding areas because of how it brings
theatre into the present. “The Living Newspaper Festival takes what people often view as an

6
"Home: Jackalope Theatre." Jackalope Theatre. Accessed December 11, 2022.
https://www.jackalopetheatre.org.

6
archaic artform and makes it really relevant,” El Gamal said over a video call.
7
“It’s telling
stories about things that they’ve heard about or things that they’re living.”
In the same spirit of the Soviet Living Newspaper, El Gamal noted the significance of
making current events easily digestible and accessible outside of written formats. She also
described the version of stories that reach our phones, newspapers and newscasts as sterilized
and far removed from the everyday consumer.
“Something that live performance does that the written word sometimes struggles to do,
especially within the confines of journalism, is embody empathy,” she said, calling it nearly
impossible for a journalist to interpret someone’s heaviest and most intimate moments within the
confines of a short review or article.
The Living Newspaper exemplifies accessibility where performance and journalism
intersect. Jackalope Theatre’s Living Newspaper Festival calls to mind other modern examples
of presentations that build on the intersection of these fields, such as The Moth and Pop-Up
Magazine — two theme-based storytelling organizations that present live events across the
United States.

THE MOTH AS EVIDENCE
The Moth exemplifies the most simplified combination of journalism and live
presentation. The organization is a New York-based non-profit group dedicated to the art of
storytelling. In addition to a weekly podcast, a radio show and four published books, The Moth
presents upwards of 600 theme-based storytelling events a year in more than 27 U.S. cities, as

7
El Gamal, Tina. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. October 13, 2022.

7
well as in London and Melbourne. These events “dance between documentary and theatre,”
presenting a collection of true, first-person-shared stories.
8

According to the organization’s website, The Moth was founded in 1997 by novelist
George Dawes Green. His desire in starting the program was to bring to New York and other
metropolitan areas the intimate feeling of summer evenings in his home state of Georgia, “when
moths were attracted to the light on the porch where he and his friends would gather to spin
spellbinding tales.”
9

Although The Moth differs from the storytelling efforts of The Living Newspaper in that
it doesn’t seek to share stories through the performing arts, its proven success as a live medium
to present nonfiction stories is implied in the organization's continued growth over a 26-year
period. As of 2018, more than 50,000 stories were shared through live programming designed by
The Moth at nearly 4,000 global events.
10

The organization’s continued aspiration to pursue avenues of storytelling in live settings,
despite its accomplishment in pursuing other avenues through audio platforms and published
work, speaks to the significance of an audience’s physical presence in a storytelling
environment. The importance of such participation in a storytelling transaction is explained
further in the next section.

8
“The art and craft of storytelling.” The Moth. Accessed March 1, 2023. https://themoth.org/

9
"About the Moth." The Moth. Accessed March 1, 2023. https://themoth.org/about.

10
"Fact Sheet.Pdf." Powered by Box. Box. Accessed March 1, 2023.
https://themoth.app.box.com/s/hhhn90mshznbavhihyozojp2ue5p62xv.

8
PERFORMANCE ETHNOGRAPHY AS EVIDENCE
Another piece of supporting evidence where the performing arts and a subset of
journalism intersect involves the practice of performance ethnography and the importance of
bodily participation in sharing and receiving stories.
Ethnography is primarily concerned with uncovering meanings inherent to a particular
group and its practices through immersion into the life, routines, rituals and social settings of a
subject.
11
Janet Cramer and Michael McDevitt call the narrative schemes and observational
methods of ethnography a close relative to journalism. For the sake of this argument,
ethnography and journalism intertwine as methods of presenting previously unknown
information and can be considered transposable fields.
According to Dwight Conquergood, “ethonography’s distinctive research method,
participant-observation fieldwork, privileges the body as a site of knowing.”
12
Relaying the
cultural embodiment of a subject to audiences is perhaps the ethnographer’s most important job,
and a critical method for intensifying and interpreting cultural embodiment is through
performance.
13

11
Cramer, Janet, and Michael M. McDevitt. "Ethnographic Journalism." Qualitative Research in
Journalism: Taking It to the Streets, (2014). Accessed December 2, 2022.
12
Conquergood, Dwight. "Rethinking Ethnography: Towards a Critical Cultural Politics." The
SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies, (2006): 351-365. Accessed December 2, 2022.

13
Turner, Victor. 1986. The Anthropology of Performance. New York: PAJ Publications.

9
Omi Joni L. Jones, a professor in the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at
the University of Texas at Austin, expanded on this concept through her own presentation of
performance ethnography, which she calls the exchange of how culture is done in the body.
14

In February 2001, Jones presented Searching for Osun, a performance installation surrounding
Yoruba-based spirituality and identity. A large portion of her research involved what her
Blackness meant to Nigerians as opposed to people in the United States. Jones recalled feelings
of displacement during her research in Nigeria when natives referred to her as oyinbo, the word
for stranger and white person. She employed this feeling of disorientation on the audience by
having a white woman play her in the performance.
“The liveness was an essential way of stimulating the kind of recognition and
transformation I’m interested in,” Jones shared during a video interview.
15
More importantly, the
liveness allowed audiences to feel something in their bodies like the feelings she embodied
during her time in Nigeria. “That is where the learning was going to begin.”
In another sector of the performance, pepe stew — a spicy African chicken and rice dish
— was prepared and served. Jones said nothing could replicate the smell and taste of this meal
more than physically engaging the audience with it: “There are things you can do in writing.
That’s not one of them.”
The audience was eager to participate in the interactive parts of Searching for Osun,
according to Jones. Much of her exploration as an ethnographic scholar involves the information
our bodies consume during a direct experience and how that information is utilized without us

14
Jones, Joni L. "Performance Ethnography: The Role of Embodiment in Cultural Authenticity."
Theatre Topics 12, no. 1 (2002): 1-15.

15
Jones, Joni L. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. September 30, 2022.

10
knowing. A performance, she says, is a widespread way to disseminate bodily information
directly from a source.
“Live performance — live being together — changes our body chemistry,” Jones said.
“We don’t even know that we just had an experience in our bodies that is affecting how we take
the bus the next day.”
The emphasis on bodily participation and the body’s response to live presentation
exemplified through performance ethnography supports the advantage of nonfiction storytelling
through performing arts over forms of print, broadcast and digital media.

11
Chapter 2: The common thread

JOURNALISM AS STORYTELLING
It is important to recognize what storytelling is and why methods of storytelling through
live performance are comparable to storytelling through other media.
Journalism serves a function of storytelling.
16
In his 2005 edition of a series of articles
defining what journalism is, professor of media studies Mark Deuze calls the field a
“combination of newsgathering and storytelling techniques in all media formats.” The centuries-
long history and widespread tradition of newsgathering implies this view of the practice, based
on fact-sharing, to be the strongest example of real journalism.
17
However, Israeli journalist
Itzhak Roeh believes in extending the practice to include “stories of the real,” a category of
discourse envisioned by French philosopher Michel Foucault (alongside “stories of the
imaginary” and “stories of desire”):
Stories in journalism, committed as they are to the representation of realities, are, to put it bluntly,
no less narratives than are stories of the imagination or of desire, which refer to the wishful or the
fantastic. No less than these, journalists’ stories of the real are constructions of meanings, and
they seek, as all narratives do, to establish meaningful closure of moral significance. At the same
time, they must also obey most of the same laws and codes of storytelling.
18

Roeh adds that the role of journalism as storytelling is to create shared experiences under
the cognitive ruse of imparting timely and unknown facts. The acceptance of this operation is

16
Deuze, Mark. "What Is Journalism?" Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism 6, no. 4
(2005): 442-464. Accessed December 2, 2022.

17
Zelizer, Barbie. “When Facts, Truth and Reality are God-terms: On Journalism’s Uneasy Place
in Cultural Studies.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 1, no. 1 (2004):
100–119.

18
Roeh, Itzhak. “Journalism as Storytelling, Coverage as Narrative.” American Behavioral
Scientist 33, no. 2 (1989): 162–168.

12
measured by the continued development of the field and the expansion of outlets providing
access to journalistic works from print sources (newspapers, magazines), broadcast (radio,
television) and digital platforms (websites, social media).

ART AS STORYTELLING
Like journalism, art that carries expressive significance — a concept emphasized by
American philosopher of aesthetics Morris Weitz — tells stories.
19

“I think by definition, art is storytelling,” Susan Silton said in an interview from her Los
Angeles studio.
20
The interdisciplinary artist comes from a background in design, and places
emphasis on themes of identity in her work. Most of Silton’s pieces, such as “Who’s in a
Name?,” “The Stripe Project” and “Bursting in air,” begin as responses to the work of other
artists, critiques and curiosities, often turning into projects with many layers.
21
She lets each
response take whatever form it needs to tell a story, and generally calls pieces of artwork “a
language imparted by an artist.”
“There is a need to interpret and relay and chronicle what is happening around us.
Because art is a very powerful way to inhabit the present time,” Silton said.
Perhaps understanding the efficacy of art as storytelling is better supported by the
description of narrative art, a genre of visual art specifically created to tell a story. In “Time in
space: Narrative in classical art,” art historian Jocelyn Small explains that most of Western visual

19
Bresnahan, Aili W. "Morris Weitz." Philosophy Faculty Publications, (2014). Accessed
December 2, 2022.

20
Silton, Susan. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. December 6, 2022.

21
“Susan Silton.” SUSAN SILTON. Accessed December 11, 2022.
https://www.susansilton.com/.

13
art until the 20th Century was narrative, and told stories from religion, myth and history.
22
Da
Vinci’s renowned painting from the late 1400s, The Last Supper, falls under this category.
Though contemporary and modern art structures presumably reject the historical narrative
layout of Western art, they often reference more direct political and social allegories, such as in
Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, a wall-sized mural depiction of World War II-era imagery, or in
Silton’s previously mentioned works.
Karen Golden, meanwhile, represents the Los Angeles chapter of the National
Storytelling Network, a national education and advocacy program.
23
She is a musical polymath
and has been a professional performance storyteller since 1989, specializing in multicultural
folklore, Jewish heritage and telling personal and family stories across ages. Golden, over a
video call, defined storytelling as a memory, a collection or a way of connecting: “It’s a way of
sharing a deep inner journey with another human.”
24

Education is a priority in the stories Golden shares with young audiences from Los
Angeles to Argentina. But she tells stories for adults, too. In a one-woman show, Golden shares
the deeply personal experience of visiting her father’s home village in Lithuania with her
daughters in 2018 and learning an unexplored truth about the Holocaust.
“Storytelling is personal. It happens at one moment in time,” Golden said. “It’s universal
if stories are told with unique details — not general, but specific details.”

22
Small, Jocelyn. “Time in Space: Narrative in Classical Art.” Art Bulletin, 1999.

23
“What Is Storytelling?” National Storytelling Network. Accessed December 11, 2022.
https://storynet.org/what-is-storytelling/.

24
Golden, Karen. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. October 7, 2022.

14
Golden’s dynamic method of sharing stories, Silton’s presentation of telling stories
through her visual art and the ventures of storytelling put forth by other artists and journalists
expressed above display a collection of paradigms that define how to participate in the discipline.

15
Chapter 3: “Perception of Time: a live storytelling experience”

THE EXPERIMENT
To support the assumption that nonfiction storytelling through performing arts is more
effective than traditional journalistic storytelling, I organized and presented an experiment that
crosses the previously described fields. The experiment included a performance that was a
combination of visuals, audio elements and original works presented by three performing artists
— a musician, an actor and a dancer — before a live audience, in coordination with a shared
theme: perception of time (which was also the title of the event).
The theme “perception of time” was inspired by the warped discernment of time that
global communities claim to have experienced because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I
interviewed Luke Jones, director of the Time Perception Lab at the University of Manchester
(England), who explained that one of the reasons why people had a disconcerting relationship to
the passage of time during the early stages of the pandemic was due to their temporal orientation
being thrown off.
Temporal orientation is the understanding of when you are in time. This is measured by
markers we habitually experience, such as taking the trash out every Tuesday, calling your
parents every Sunday and watching your favorite television shows every Thursday night —
markers that were shifted or removed from people’s lives entirely during the bulk of the
pandemic.

16
“All of the stuff that would normally be contained in the period of two years — all the
holidays, all the celebrations, all the parties, all the movies, all the stuff that you do normally —
wasn’t there,” Jones explained over a video call.
25

Jones said shifts in temporal orientation are something people experience often. For
example, the week between Christmas and New Year’s is a common passage of time that feels
distorted for those who are home for the holidays or who changed their routine during this
period. And while our awareness of time passing, like breathing, is not usually at the forefront of
conversation outside of COVID or Christmas, it calls to mind other moments individuals may
have experienced an altered relationship with time.
***
A shift in an individual’s notion of temporality was the concept explored in “Perception
of Time: a live storytelling experience.” The event took place before an audience on February
17, 2023 at Joyce J. Cammilleri Hall, an auditorium located at the University of Southern
California’s Brain and Creativity Institute, and featured artists Yasna Vismale, Diego Dela Rosa
and Masha Cherezova. Each artist was prompted to expand on a story from their life that related
to the theme “perception of time.” All three of the artists come from varying backgrounds;
finding diverse artists of different cultures, genders and sexual orientations was a priority in
choosing who to work with.

25
Jones, Luke. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. October 11, 2022.

17

Figure 2. Poster designed by Viktoria Capek for “Perception of Time.”

18
In December 2022, each artist signed a contract confirming their dedication to create or
adapt original work for “Perception of Time.” Following a series of interviews I conducted with
each artist about their background, their artistic practice and what stories they intended to share
in relation to the event’s theme, they were asked to develop an original piece over the course of
two months before refining the work during three in-person rehearsals and presenting their work
to an audience. The following paragraphs describe parts of each artist’s background and the
original work they prepared and performed for “Perception of Time.”

THE PERFORMANCE
Yasna Vismale, 23, was the first artist who agreed to originate work for “Perception of
Time.” She is a multi-hyphenate — a Japanese and Afro-Caribbean American, a member of the
LGBTQ+ community, musician, author, businesswoman, and film composer who presented a
multimedia piece made up of two vocal-and-trumpet arrangements (You Give Me a Good
Feeling, Someday I’ll Be Home) and one short film (A Juncture of Pleasures) for the event. The
whole piece (titled “Coming Home'') contemplated hope for the future.
“The word ‘someday’ really can mean next week, next month or, as [singer] Erykah Badu
says, ‘Next Lifetime,’” Vismale shared with me prior to the show.
26
“It’s not necessarily about
obtaining what you want to do, but it’s opening your mind up to different possibilities and
having hope to live a more fulfilling life.”
The idea of finally making it to where you want to be is a concept Vismale clung to in
recent years. Amid what felt like a never-ending series of changes with the COVID-19
pandemic, moving cross-country from New York to Los Angeles and having to take an

26
Vismale, Yasna. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. November 28, 2022.

19
unexpected leave of absence from her graduate studies due to health concerns, Vismale worried
she'd run out of time to accomplish her goals. "Coming Home" explored the bittersweet
relationship between enjoying the present, feeling uncertain about the future, and the hope of
knowing that not everything has to happen now; with time, a world of possibilities awaits.

Figure 3. Yasna Vismale performing “Coming Home” for “Perception of Time.” (Photo,
Viktoria Capek)

The second artist who agreed to originate work for the event was Diego Dela Rosa. Dela
Rosa, 22, is a performing artist and curator based in Los Angeles who wrote and acted in a solo
reflection titled “Teacher’s Pet” for “Perception of Time.” Their piece explored the musings of a
queer Latinx struggling to pass the time during initial lockdowns imposed by the COVID-19
pandemic. To cope, they relied on drugs; it’s revealed in the early moments of “Teacher’s Pet”
that Dela Rosa’s character just consumed a tab of acid and is waiting for the drug to send them
into a psychedelic experience. As the piece transpires, Dela Rosa shifts around the performance
space that represents their living room and admits to audience members that they’ve had a

20
difficult relationship with drugs since their first involvement with morphine at age 13, following
a sports-related injury to their knee.
“I've always been someone who has a bit of an addictive personality, and I always try to
keep that in mind with my relationship with substances,” Dela Rosa said in an interview.
27
“But I
was at a block at one of my lowest points. And I didn't want to do [drugs] to forget about my
problems, I wanted to do this to work through them.”
The artist also acknowledged aspects of their fluid gender and queer sexual orientation in
“Teacher’s Pet.” Prior to the pandemic, Dela Rosa never faced or accepted these parts of their
identity, despite having support from their family to live authentically. At one point during the
performance, Dela Rosa pretends to be their mother, who expresses an unconditional love for her
child, no matter their use of drugs or who they’re romantically involved with.
I’m done trying to figure out why I am the way I am. I am. We are. Everyone just is. There’s no
right way to do this shit, as long as it’s real and meaningful. Real is as real as we want it to be.
Existing is persisting and we are always enough just because. The answer to the why is simply
because. We are worth it. That is beautiful.
28

27
Dela Rosa, Diego. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. December 5, 2022.

28
Dela Rosa, Diego. "Teacher's Pet." Performance at Cammilleri Hall, Los Angeles, February
17, 2023.

21

Figure 4. Diego Dela Rosa performing “Teacher’s Pet” for “Perception of Time.” (Photo,
Viktoria Capek)

Masha Cherezova, 23, was the third and final artist to originate an artistic piece for
“Perception of Time.” Cherezova loved The Nutcracker and watched it every weekend as a child.
She’s been drawn to dance for as long as she can remember and began taking the art form
seriously around age 11. Roughly eight years of practice later, Cherzova had the opportunity to
expand on her familial roots and dance with a ballet company in Russia, an experience reflected
upon in “Perception of Time” through a solo-choreographed piece titled “Lebedya,” Russian for
“swan.”
“After coming back from Russia, I've grown a lot as a person,” Cherezova explained to
me before the performance.
29
“Looking back at my time in Russia, yes, I had a remarkable and
surreal experience, but it was a bit like being put in a cage.”
From 2019 to 2021, the dancer lived and breathed classical ballet, an art form that prides
itself on perfection. Cherezova found herself so beguiled by perfecting her routines, however,

29
Cherezova, Masha. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. January 6, 2023.

22
that she missed out on major developments, such as how the COVID-19 pandemic was
impacting her family and friends back home, or how Black Lives Matter protests and other social
movements were shaping the United States. What finally brought Cherezova home to California
in late 2021 was a leukemia diagnosis; while she hoped her leave from Russia would be
temporary, it became permanent.
Performed to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Cherzova’s choreography for
“Lebedya” was her swan song to classical ballet. The artist interacted with an imaginary mirror
onstage to look back at her years as a ballerina in Russia. The dance revealed an uncertainty to
the audience of whether the experience was worth missing the changing world around her for the
sake of perfection.

Figure 5. Masha Cherezova performing “Lebedya” for “Perception of Time.” (Photo, Viktoria
Capek)

***
I incorporated additional features and pieces of media into the “Perception of Time”
event to help facilitate the artists’ stories, including an audio track made up of interview clips

23
provided by the artists, overlapping the sound of a ticking clock. The audio track was used to
transition into and out of each artist’s performance. A nine-page online ‘zine (Appendix A) with
information about the event, its correlated research and the artists involved, was another piece of
media made available to audience members (through a QR code) for “Perception of Time.” The
most critical feature incorporated into the event, however, was a discussion with the artists and
audience immediately following the final art presentation.
In a less-structured manner than the first half of the event, the discussion spanned topics
of the show’s theme and organizational concept, coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, and
repeated motifs of pain explored in all three of the artists’ presentations. A question about
moments infiltrated by a distortion of time was opened to the roughly 60-person audience and
was met with responses by diverse spectators.
One older audience member shared his perspective of feeling as though time slowing
down during the onset years of the pandemic held a positive attribute. This provided contrast to
the three younger artists who all presented stories loosely related to feelings of a grip lost on time
during the pandemic or in similar confined moments.

24

Figure 6. Yasna Vismale, Diego Dela Rosa, Masha Cherezova and Viktoria Capek
during the audience discussion part of “Perception of Time.” (Photo, Viktoria Capek)

THE RESPONSE
A consensus from the audience present at “Perception of Time” was an interest in the
storytelling concept and presentation through various performing arts genres and relatability to
the event’s theme. As with any live performance, audience feedback via physical response is
expected and encouraged; this event was no exception. An assumption that spectators enjoyed
the performances, or at the very least were allured to watching, can be drawn from their repeated
moments of applause, laughter, gasps for air, and from their involvement in the audience
discussion during the event’s second half. This reflection can be further surmised by my face-to-
face interaction shared with various audience members after the event concluded, which included
responses from strangers that the performance was “unlike anything they’d seen before” and that
it was something “they hope to see more of in the future.”
The audience was encouraged to further share their thoughts, comments, questions and
overall response to “Perception of Time” in an online survey, which was accessible through a

25
link in the event’s corresponding digital ‘zine. Roughly a third of the audience members in
attendance participated and submitted an anonymous response to the event.
From the survey, we learned that more than 60% of attendees fell in the 19-25-year-old
demographic. Other age groups represented include 26-34 and 50-64. Nearly three-fourths of the
survey participants (72%) called the performance “very interesting,” on a scale ranking the event
as one of five listings, classified from “very interesting” to “very boring.” The other 27%
concluded the event as “somewhat interesting,” the category’s second highest ranking.
Perhaps the most significant data provided by the survey measured response to how clear
the stories told by artists in “Perception of Time” were and how connected the audience felt to
those stories. In response to the clarity of stories presented in “Perception of Time,” 39% called
them “somewhat clear,” 33% “very clear” and 22% “somewhat vague.” The other 6% responded
“neutral” to the question. Despite indeterminate meanings behind the stories shown as expressed
by the survey, 56% said they felt “very connected” to the artists’ work. Only 6% of responders
reported to have felt “somewhat disconnected” from the stories, which was the lowest ranked
response in this category.

26

Figure 7. Pie charts depicting percentage responses to questions about “Perception of Time.”

Overall positive written feedback was provided under a comments section of the survey,
including praise of the show’s concept as a tribute to the passage of time and the implementation
of an audience discussion following the artists’ presentations. One thorough response to the
survey paid heed to the gaps left by the performance that would have been left unfilled if not for
the corresponding digital ‘zine:
I enjoyed each performance thoroughly, but there were times when each artist's connection to
“perception of time” was a bit unclear. I read the entirety of the pamphlet before the show, and
that helped. But like with any performance, I'm sure that some audience members may not read

27
all of it and as a result be lost during the performance. So I think finding a way to have the artists
be a bit more explanatory before, during and after their performances would help. But overall,
this was a very enjoyable experience and I would most definitely attend another like it in the
future!

The final question of the survey asked if the audience member would see a performance
like “Perception of Time” again. To this question, 78% responded “yes” while 28% responded
“maybe.” “No” was an available option but was not selected by any respondents.

28
Conclusion
There are obstacles that surfaced in my research to prove that nonfiction storytelling
through live performance is a more effective method of sharing stories rather than more
traditional journalistic mediums, mainly in the experimental pursuit of demonstrating
“Perception of Time.” For one, the accessibility of live storytelling is only as beneficial as the
audience who shows up to experience it. While more than a hundred individuals RSVPd for the
“Perception of Time” event, roughly two-thirds showed up. This speaks to the added difficulty of
marketing for an event (in a pandemic world where individuals are still reluctant to go out in
public, no less) — marketing that calls for additional resources outside of securing an event
space, curating artists to tell stories and inviting an audience to watch and listen.
The other glaring obstacle expressed through the concept was emphasized in the online
feedback following the performance: While each artist’s performance was engaging, their overall
stories, without the aid of the corresponding digital ‘zine, were somewhat vague to a handful of
audience members, as were the featured audio elements. Author Doug Borwick voiced in his
book, “Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the United States,” that
music is not a universal language.
30
While he emphasized music to oppose the popular bromide,
Borwick’s proverb speaks to art of all kinds.
All art is culturally specific. This is not to say that great works of art cannot speak across widely
disparate cultures, but the further removed the viewer/listener’s culture is from the culture of the
art work’s creator, the more difficulty the former will have in appreciating the art. And in some
cases the chasm may well not be bridgeable.

The artists featured in “Perception of Time” come from diverse backgrounds. As in most
instances in which there is cultural diversity, a language barrier can be expected if the audience

30
Borwick, Doug. 2012. Building Communities, Not Audiences: The Future of the Arts in the
United States. ArtsEngaged.

29
is not similarly diverse. And though the direct exchange of verbal language wasn’t the primary
source of a language barrier during the event, the vagueness experienced by some audience
members may reflect a barrier hinging on each artists’ method of communication to share their
stories. In this instance, communication through music, theatrical performance and dance.
Despite these obstacles, there is measurable research expressed in this text to conclude
that live performance — to an extent — is an effective medium to share true and timely stories
and that now is the time to further explore this avenue of storytelling. Once it is understood that
journalism and performing arts are two fields deriving from the same foundation, rooted in
sharing individual narratives, it is easier to grasp why and how The Living Newspaper, The
Moth and productions influenced by performance ethnography gained success in crossing the
fields. All three of these examples carry aspects of storytelling that cannot be adequately
expressed through narrative in print, broadcast or digital mediums. The Living Newspaper
provided greater local access to narratives directly relevant to a certain community. The Moth
derives from the demand for intimate, in-person storytelling, and the field of performance
ethnography emphasizes The Moth’s commitment to in-person storytelling by engaging the
bodies of a live audience with a physical, yet informational performance.
The live experimental presentation of storytelling proposed for expansion in this text and
pursued in “Perception of Time” builds from The Living Newspaper, The Moth and performance
ethnography. What makes it a modern and relevant concept, different from the three previously
stated examples, however, is the concept’s principal focus on the artist. The method of
storytelling expanded upon in “Perception of Time” may be the only method of combining
journalism and performance art fields that highlights not only the importance of sharing timely
stories to audiences through means outside of traditional journalism, but also the significant

30
contribution of the artist to tell a story most vulnerably through their own artistic language,
notwithstanding the potential artistic language barriers discussed earlier. This concept of
storytelling puts emphasis on artists who have a need to express themselves through original
work, as much as on community audiences who will find informational, emotional and relational
value in the artists’ stories being shared. This bolsters the claim that there is a need to course this
concept of storytelling right now, during a global recovery period following a time in which
performing artists were thwarted from creating and using their art to connect with others.
***
Aside from the research, the data, and the experimental reflections to gauge the success
of this study, I cannot help but draw on my own experiences to conclude the arguments put forth
in this text. I have experienced countless times a fervor that only comes over a person
immediately following a live event. It’s the feeling the biggest football fan in the world has
leaving the stadium following a Super Bowl game or the feeling shared amongst Beatles fans
following a concert at the band’s peak of popularity. The rush of experiencing these moments
live, rather than through a screen, is incomparable.
After my viewing of Cabaret, I sat sobbing in my seat until every other audience member
had left the house. I remember thinking, through blood rushing to my head and short gasps for
air, That gunshot startled me. I didn’t know it was really like that (the horrors of the Holocaust,
that is). And finally, I need to get these feelings out. I need to talk about this with someone. I
never said that fervor was accompanied by warmth, only that it moved me enough to continue
the conversation elsewhere.
I propose we explore the power of telling individual stories through live venues with this
level of impact in mind, with the understanding that artists have the need and the strength to

31
convey moving narratives to audiences who are willing to listen and with optimism that sharing
these intimate narratives in a singular space will lead to conversation, connection and empathy
when it is needed most.

32
Bibliography

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United States. ArtsEngaged.
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December 2, 2022.
Casson, JW. "Living Newspaper: Theatre and Therapy." TDR: The Drama Review, (2000):
107-122. Accessed December 2, 2022.
Cherezova, Masha. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. January 6, 2023.
Colclough, Joanna. "Living Newspapers: When News Made the Theatre." Library of Congress
Blogs. August 16, 2022.
Conquergood, Dwight. "Rethinking Ethnography: Towards a Critical Cultural Politics." The
SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies, (2006): 351-365. Accessed December 2, 2022.
Cramer, Janet, and Michael M. McDevitt. "Ethnographic Journalism." Qualitative Research in
Journalism: Taking It to the Streets, (2014). Accessed December 2, 2022.
Dela Rosa, Diego. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. December 5, 2022.
Dela Rosa, Diego. "Teacher's Pet." Performance at Cammilleri Hall, Los Angeles, February 17,
2023.
Deuze, Mark. "What Is Journalism?" Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism 6, no. 4 (2005):
442-464. Accessed December 2, 2022.

El Gamal, Tina. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. October 13, 2022.
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https://themoth.app.box.com/s/hhhn90mshznbavhihyozojp2ue5p62xv.
Golden, Karen. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. October 7, 2022.
"Home: Jackalope Theatre." Jackalope Theatre. Accessed December 11, 2022.
https://www.jackalopetheatre.org.
Jones, Joni L. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. September 30, 2022.

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Jones, Joni L. "Performance Ethnography: The Role of Embodiment in Cultural Authenticity."
Theatre Topics 12, no. 1 (2002): 1-15.
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Small, Jocelyn. “Time in Space: Narrative in Classical Art.” Art Bulletin, 1999.
“Susan Silton.” SUSAN SILTON. Accessed December 11, 2022. https://www.susansilton.com/.
“The art and craft of storytelling.” The Moth. Accessed March 1, 2023. https://themoth.org/
Turner, Victor. 1986. The Anthropology of Performance. New York: PAJ Publications.
Vismale, Yasna. Interview. By Viktoria Capek. November 28, 2022.
“What Is Storytelling?” National Storytelling Network. Accessed December 11, 2022.
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100–119.

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Appendix A: “Perception of Time: a live storytelling experience” digital ‘zine

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Asset Metadata

Creator Capek, Viktoria (author)

Core Title The effectiveness of nonfiction storytelling through live performance

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Degree Conferral Date 2023-05

Publication Date 04/18/2023

Defense Date 04/17/2023

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag broadcast journalism,COVID-19,Dance,digital journalism,federal theatre project,journalism,live storytelling,music,narrative art,OAI-PMH Harvest,pandemic,perception of time,performance ethnography,performance journalism,performance studies,Performing arts,Print Journalism,the living newspaper,the moth,Theatre

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Garza, Oscar (committee chair), Abrahamson, Alan (committee member), Moore, Madison (committee member), Seidenberg, Willa (committee member)

Creator Email viktoria.capekgrey@gmail.com,viktoria.capekgrey@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113017572

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Legacy Identifier etd-CapekVikto-11650

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