In a wide-ranging conversation, Asher Hartman retraces a path from theatre training to performance art, and describes why non-narrative work continues to feel \u201croomier\u201d than traditional stages. The artist\u2019s early years ran through Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley, where staging \u201cvery bizarre\u201d school plays led to study with the Berkeley Rep theater, a theatre major at UCLA, and a stint in fashion design in Tokyo. Returning to Los Angeles, Hartman started a program in a theatre company in downtown LA before shifting toward performance and visual art.<\/p>\n
Hartman speaks candidly about leaving what is described as American conservative theatre, noting a disconnect with \u201cthe kind of classical tale of the white American family, and\/or middle class people and their problems.\u201d Performance art offered a different aperture: \u201cPerformance allowed me in some way into live art that was much roomier, less based in narrative and definitely less based in storytelling\u2026 than theatre.\u201d A pivotal period at Santa Monica College\u2019s Design, Art and Architecture<\/em> program \u2014 \u201cabout $100 a semester\u201d \u2014 created a bridge into visual arts, followed by studies at CalArts. Alongside this, writing trade reference books helped cover tuition, and painting remained an ongoing interest.<\/p>\n Directing emerged, in part, because others \u201ccouldn\u2019t understand\u201d the language of Hartman\u2019s texts. There\u2019s abiding respect for actors and for \u201ccultivating\u201d what performers can do, even as the artist identifies foremost as an artist rather than a theatre director. The pull of process remains central: the unknown is welcomed as a space where the unconscious \u2014 and \u201cthe spiritual or the non-human\u201d \u2014 can surface in the work.<\/p>\n Hartman questions rigid life scripts and the way linear storytelling can reify them, recalling near-death experiences that complicated any single \u201clife review.\u201d Reading for people \u2014 \u201cwhich is my business\u201d \u2014 has further underlined a belief in multiple selves rather than a single, tidy persona. That skepticism extends to audience expectations in seated venues. Hartman prefers the works to be met as artworks, not as plot-driven theatre with a \u201cbeginning, middle, end.\u201d<\/p>\n All of Hartman\u2019s work is based on writing, guided by an energy that resists easy explanation. Integrity to that impulse defines success: changing course to please viewers has \u201calmost every time\u201d led to failure. The practice is rigorous \u2014 \u201cmy company and I, we rehearse for about a year with every performance\u201d \u2014 and aimed at art audiences seeking abstraction paired with conceptual depth. Pragmatically, Hartman collaborates with risk-taking organizations and co-produces projects, but acknowledges the grind: finding money for artists, designers, and materials \u201cis really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n What remains constant is a commitment to the widest possible field for live art \u2014 one that resists narrow stories in favor of complexity, risk, and the expansive unknown.<\/p>\nOn narrative, audience, and success<\/h2>\n