Third Space Performance Lab was started in Los Angeles in 2017 by Marc Gomes and Shanti Pillai as a platform for exploring collaborative, multi-disciplinary performance. We believe in the overwhelming importance of humor and beauty. We provoke questions of gender, race, and hybridity by juxtaposing unexpected points of cultural reference. We blur the boundaries between performance and audience and we play with the distinctions between actor and character. Our bodies are the central focus of what we do and speak in multiple theatrical languages. We interweave our art making practice with teaching and research about contemporary cultural politics and theatrical form. Embodying theoretical discourse is an integral part of our process. We are informed by scholarship and in turn, our performances seek both to delight and to inspire reflection.
Our projects have been shown at Cal State Long Beach, USC’s Roski School of Art and Design, UCLA, Brown University, UC Berkeley, the Clark Art Institute, the 62 Center for the Arts, Cornell University, and Gati Dance Forum in New Delhi. Third Space is currently based in the USA in Williamstown, MA and Ithaca, NY.
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Shanti Pillai is an artist and scholar. She was trained in Bharatanatyam by T. Balasaraswati’s two senior disciples, Nandini Ramani and Priyamvada Sankar. From 1991-1994 she was a member of the experimental collective, the Frente de Danza Independiente, in Ecuador. From 2006-2015 she lived and worked in Cuba, collaborating with dancers, actors, and musicians to create and perform in original works. She holds a PhD in Performance Studies from NYU and is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Williams College. She has taught students from 30 countries in both academic and studio courses. Her writing has appeared in Theatre Journal, The Drama Review, Conversations Across the Field of Dance Studies, Women and Performance, and the Dance Research Journal. Her book project explores women artists of contemporary performance in India for which she received a Fulbright-Nehru research grant in 2018.
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Marc Gomes is a teacher, writer, and actor. His work began on stage with roles in notable productions of As You Like It, A Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, Edmond, A Taste of Honey, The Gayden Chronicles, Sweet like Suga and the North American premiere of Ryszard Kapuscinski’s The Emperor. He has starred in several television series including: The Crow: Stairway to Heaven; Sue Thomas: FBeye; ABC’s Commander in Chief and Lightning Force, and CBC’s Chasing Rainbows. Marc’s screenplay adaptation of the Caribbean classic novel, Corentyne Thunder, received a UNIDO Cinematic & Entrepreneurial Motivation Award (CEMA). He is Assistant Professor of Acting at Ithaca College and holds an MFA in Acting Pedagogy from California State University at Long Beach. IMDB
Photos by J. Alexander Baker