I always perceived performance art to be contradictory to theater, real vs artificial, but when attempting to tell the story of how I was brutally attacked during a live performance while none of the audience interfered- I chose to enter the theater stage. The first draft was written in 2016 as a tragicomedy in three acts and chronicles the unfoldment of the true events surrounding my performance ‘Second Floor’ (2010) at the Marina Abramovic Institute West in San Francisco. It is written in an absurdist tone, giving the whole story a slapstick ambience. The stage play was performed once (to date) as a staged reading. The audience were laughing throughout the play, only towards the end realizing there are no innocent bystanders in this story, including them. I have since written 2 more stage plays, Private Eyes (2018) tells the story of immigrant strippers at a gentlemen club on the 2016 election night in NYC and Untitled Room (2020) tells the story of an artist-mother grappling with her newborn child, love and loss during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

The following images are from a staged reading held in 2016 at the 14th Street Theater in New York City.

SECOND FLOOR staged reading by Lital Dotan

Director: Jessi D Hill

Cast: A- Tatyana Kot; Ralph- Gili Getz; Rich- Derek Long; Gas - Adam Newborn; Hoi- Brian Cedric Jones; Journ/Absent/HOB-Milton Elliott; Audience 1 - Mahima Saigal; Audience 2-Zac Guttman; Audience 3-Michael Malanga; Audience 4-Brinda Dixit; Audience 5-Jody Prusan; Audience 6-Eric Harper; Audience 7-Maria Mogavero

Program Artistic Director: Ronit MuszkaTblit

Sound design: Sean Hagerty

Production Manager: Kryssy Wright

Video Documentation: Sagie Baron

Installation: Lital Dotan

Photography: Eyal Perry