Performing Arts

Background

Terry Wolverton studied Performing Arts at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, the University of Detroit and the University of Toronto.

Indecent Acts, 1975, Grand Rapids, MI. Photo by Jere Van Syoc

While in Toronto, she co-founded a feminist theater troupe that produced But Something Was Wrong With the Princess (1972-73). In Grand Rapids, MI, she collaborated with students to produce Indecent Acts (1975.)

Once in Los Angeles, she collaborated with Ann Shannon to create A Woman's Honor: A Play About Rape, for the Los Angeles Feminist Theater Troupe (1977).

Terry then became engaged with the burgeoning performance art movement in Los Angeles, creating numerous collaborative and solo works.

Femina: An Intraspace Voyage (with Ann Shannon) (1978), the Woman's Building, Los Angeles.
Photo by Bia Lowe.

An Oral Herstory Of Lesbianism (1979), the Woman's Building, Los Angeles.
Photo by Bia Lowe

In Silence Secrets Turn to Lies/Secrets Shared Become Sacred Truth (1979), the Woman's Building, Los Angeles.
Photo by Jo Goodwin

Ya' Got Class, Real Class (with Vicki Stolsen) (1980)

An Intimate Dinner For 150 Honoring Eleanor Roosevelt and All Great Lesbians (with Nancy Fried, the Waitresses, twolip art, Sylvia Kohan, and Bia Lowe) (1980)

Medium: Memory/Muse (1983)

Me and My Shadow (1984), UCLA, Los Angeles
Photo by Bia Lowe

Familiar (1984)

Excavations (1985)

Dis-A-Buse: To Free From A Misconception or Illusion (with Catherine Stifter) (1986)

The Woman's Building Changed My Life (1989)

The Fabulous Superbs (with Victoria Helton and Susan Silton) (1989-1990)

In the late 1980s, Terry took a hiaitus from performance art to concentrate on her literary work. In 2000, she began to collaborate with Heidi Duckler Dance to create six site-specific performances:
Sub-Versions (2000)
Under Ende (2001)
After Eden (2001)
Cover Story (2002)
Cleopatra, CEO (2012)
Catch Your Breath (2012)

 

Current Projects

In 2003, she began adapting Embers, her novel-in-poems, as an opera. In 2005 she teamed up with composer David Ornette Cherry to develop the score. The work has had a concert reading in 2009 at the Los Angeles Central Library in the Aloud series and an expanded concert reading in summer 2011 at Grand Performances.