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<\/p>\nHarry Houdini was famous for escaping impossible situations: inside a locked box, wrapped in chains, or even in a sealed coffin submerged in water.<\/p>\n
In Instructions for a S\u00e9ance, Austin theater-maker, playwright and performer Katie Bender attempts something even more impossible: summoning Houdini\u2019s spirit.<\/p>\n
The solo show, which she\u2019s performing next week at Fusebox Festival, was inspired by the Houdini archives at the Harry Ransom Center and explores caretaking, ambition and the urge to escape parts of your life.<\/p>\n
Bender first began developing the piece in 2015 as a graduate student at UT Austin. Her mentor and professor Kirk Lynn knew she enjoyed taking audiences into the experience of moments of the unknown. He encouraged her to explore Houdini\u2019s archives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was immediately struck by just the kind of the force of Harry Houdini’s will and ambition,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Bender became fascinated by the photos of him midescape, as well as his letters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has such a particular cadence,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was something I started to really hear. And I felt like I was kind of channeling Houdini.\u201d <\/p>\n
She wrote some monologues that became the foundation of the piece. Originally, she imagined the work as a two-person play about Houdini\u2019s life. But that shifted after she worked on the play with the actors. They were struggling to really hear Houdini\u2019s voice, so Bender read the play out loud for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was like \u2014 Oh, it’s really interesting having you play Houdini. \u2026 You know, I\u2019m a woman. So I would never be cast as Harry Houdini,\u201d she laughs. \u201cAnd I think there was a kind of cheeky delight in this kind of historic drag of me having a good time playing this man.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bender rehearses for Instructions for a S\u00e9ance on Monday. The show was inspired by the escape artist’s archives at the Harry Ransom Center. <\/p>\n
As she continued to develop the piece, Bender revisited Houdini\u2019s escape photos. At the time, she was navigating life as a working artist and mother of a young child.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have these long extended fantasies about just going to Mexico alone and disappearing into the sunset,\u201d she says. \u201cI realized that I was just craving a kind of escape because I felt like I didn’t have a release valve in my own life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The images of Houdini midescape became a kind of lifeline. \u201cThe promise of the escape is sort of built into the image, and I think I really needed that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question of how to pursue art, ambition and parenting at the same time grew central to the piece. Eventually, the project evolved into something more personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to this realization that it really was a s\u00e9ance to contact Houdini to help me get some of that escape in my life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
To channel Houdini, Bender uses a collection of unusual artifacts: chains, handcuffs, a s\u00e9ance bell, tarot cards and a portrait of the escape artist. The collection is inspired by objects at the Harry Ransom Center that once belonged to him.<\/p>\n
During the performance, Bender brings audience members into the experience by asking them to write down what they want to escape.<\/p>\n
“I came to this realization that it really was a s\u00e9ance to contact Houdini to help me get some of that escape in my life.”<\/p>\n
Katie Bender<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody has something, you know?\u201d she says. She grabs several stacks of small papers off her office windowsill and reads through them. \u201cU.S. politics, inflation, war, headaches, back pain, stuff in my teeth, financial burdens, fundraising, the daily grind of a regular day job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bender has been working on versions of the play for more than a decade. At the beginning, she wrote the piece, in part, to escape her family. And in some ways, it worked. Bender has gone on multiple trips around the country to develop and perform the s\u00e9ance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has created the container for me to actually escape my family,\u201d she says, \u201cwhich was a thing I really, really wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
But over time, her idea of ambition and what success looks like changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted to be known in the world as an artist and not a mother when I started this process,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I feel very different now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, she says, she\u2019s thinking about bringing her family with her on her work trips.<\/p>\n
\u201cI no longer want to escape my family. My family is really the space of love and support in my life, and I need that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bender has performed Instructions for a S\u00e9ance across the country and will take it to Milwaukee this fall. But performing it in Austin feels special.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so delighted to be able to do the s\u00e9ance in this community that is my home,\u201d she says. \u201cAustin itself is, I think, spiritually a really powerful place just because of the connection between the Edwards Aquifer below us and the movement of the Colorado River. The spirits, I feel like, are alive and well in Austin \u2014 and especially in Texas Performing Arts. There are some real ghosts in that building.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Houdini? <\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, the s\u00e9ance has failed,\u201d she says. \u201cI’ve never made contact with Houdini.\u201d But that\u2019s not really the point. \u201cWhat happens next is always something that is really surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n
She hopes audiences leave with a renewed sense of wonder and connection to each other and to the possibilities of live performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that the guests leave the theater feeling newly engaged with what live performance can do,\u201d she says, \u201cgather a group of people together and commune together and try to escape our troubles together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instructions for a S\u00e9ance is directed by Lily Wolff and runs Thursday, April 16, through Sunday, April 19, at the Texas Performing Arts McCullough Theatre Rehearsal Room for Fusebox Festival. More information is available at fusebox.live.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harry Houdini was famous for escaping impossible situations: inside a locked box, wrapped in chains, or even in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,30042,92166,92167,92168,92169,7796,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-240214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-escape","12":"tag-fusebox-festival","13":"tag-harry-houdini","14":"tag-instructions-for-a-seance","15":"tag-katie-bender","16":"tag-texas-performing-arts","17":"tag-tx"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}