photo by: Contributed

The Raven Book Store, 809 Massachusetts St., will host author Shauna Kelly and Theresa Buchheister for a discussion about Kelly's recent book "I've Got the Shakes: Performing Richard Foreman" on Tuesday May 12, 2026.

The Lawrence Public Library and The Raven Book Store are hosting two free events Tuesday to celebrate experimental theater and make it more accessible to the public.

“Experimental Theatre Tuesday” will include a presentation on the history of the genre by theater historian Blake Bolan at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St. Later that evening, The Raven Book Store, 809 Massachusetts St., will host a discussion from Theresa Buchheister and Shauna Kelly about Kelly’s recent book “I’ve Got the Shakes: Performing Richard Foreman,” which is about a playwright who “embodied the spirit of experimental theater,” according to The Raven’s website.

Buchheister said Kelly’s book is written in an oral history format, featuring interviews with Foreman and other actors, sound designers and lighting designers he worked with. Each chapter highlights a different theme based on the responses, including what it was like to audition for and perform in Foreman’s plays.

Buchheister, who uses they/them pronouns, was interviewed for the book and thought it was interesting to see how the responses from different artists interacted with each other — and sometimes contradicted each other. Buchheister said one person might describe a performance as “the best day of my life,” while the next line would say “it was the most boring thing I ever endured.” Buchheister said the oral history format made it an “easy read.”

“The ideas are very dense, but I ripped through it in a day because the (format) helped it flow,” Buchheister said.

photo by: Contributed by Walter Wlodarczyk

Teresa Buchheister

Because Foreman’s career spanned five decades, Buchheister said his work attracted a wide range of fans. In previous book events in New York, Buchheister said the attendees ranged from 17 to 90 years old. Foreman’s career was so long, there were some people in the audience who never got to see his work performed, but they think the book can help paint a picture of what it was like.

“It’s talking about something that is formative for a bunch of people and creating a light in the forest to follow for people who never got to experience his work,” Buchheister said.

Buchheister said many performers who worked with Foreman were queer or neurodivergent, and these performers said that after years of feeling they didn’t fit into neat categories, working in experimental theater made them “suddenly feel like they made sense.” Buchheister said encountering experimental theater is not always easy in the middle of the country, but that doesn’t mean people who live there have “inherently different taste or values or interest” for it. Hosting events like these, Buchheister hopes, may help “open the door” for people interested in this type of theater.

“It’s about access,” Buchheister said. “Giving people the option to encounter these experimental works is really cool.”

Bolan’s presentation starts at 3 p.m. at the Lawrence Public Library and will feature a question-and-answer session. The discussion at The Raven will start at 7 p.m. Both are free. For more information about either event, you can visit the library’s website.