Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Department
Sculpture
First Advisor
Taylor Baldwin
Second Advisor
Isabel Mattia
Third Advisor
Gail Dodge
Abstract
This play uses the performative potential of guilt, forgiveness, and self-help techniques as a catalyst for a new dynamic, one in which the pursuit of a false narrative, along with the structures it generates, becomes more real than reality itself. It employs “bad acting” and the practice of cold reading to stage a series of acts that function as an entry point into one’s own psyche, leveraging the peripheral space around familiar actions to allow chance, free will, and the experience of “real time” to temporarily come into effect. PLAYER 1: The bad actor is the most utopian one. CLOWN: Let’s stay here for a moment. Knowledge *collapses the thing it touches. The drama unfolds as a sequence of actions around the Providence River. It begins at the level of the mall above, with a pre-recorded sales booth performer, and descends toward the river’s surface, its hidden history, and former configurations. Participants move through a structured reading exercise that gradually expands into an intimate performative situation: alone in a boat, accompanied by an actor-guide, passing through the touristic atmosphere of the Italian gondolas.
I’m not from here,
Truly yours,
DEBORAH FISCHER
Recommended Citation
Fischer, Deborah, "Reading Exercise (You Are the Hero): Dedicated to the Providence River Under the Mall, 02.17.2026" (2026). Masters Theses. 1621.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1621
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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