"Shards" as Autoethnographic Performance

A Story of Jewish Emigration, Immigration, and the Search for Home

By: Evan Kent

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eText | 29 September 2023 | Edition Number 1

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"Shards" as Autoethnographic Performance explores the development, creation, and presentation of performed autoethnography. The author shares the impetus for the work's creation and his method for writing and rehearsing performed autoethnography.

This book is essentially an autoethnography about writing and performing an autoethnography and functions as a "play within a play." Through extensive discussions about the development, writing, and performance of "Shards," the author reveals how contemporary political events and social issues as well as events in his ancestors' history impact his writing, research, and eventual performance. The author takes us on an autoethnographic journey encompassing early 20th-century immigration from Eastern Europe to the United States, his personal development as a singer and actor, the practically obsessive need to perform, his education and eventual employment as a cantor in a synagogue, and how he negotiates these personal and artistic conflicts. Throughout the book, Evan shares with the reader highly personal stories of great honesty, sincerity, and candor. The book also provides insight into performing during the COVID-19 pandemic and how performing artists (including the author) utilized online performing venues.

This book would be a good companion volume for classes in qualitative research, autoethnography, and performance studies, as well as for those looking for a guide on writing, rehearsing, and performing solo theatre.