Artist Statement
Human liberation is the primary goal behind my work. My theatre is resistance to humanity’s recurring desire to oppress itself, functioning as a site of uninhibited and truthful human expression. As an autistic artist, the stage is the only place I feel I can truthfully be myself, an experience which grounds my conviction that our work as performing artists, for both ourselves and our audiences, is vital to the functioning of healthy societies.
Both as a director and performer, I approach the work with a playful, inquisitive spirit coupled with mature artistic discipline. I deeply value specificity in action, aesthetic, and intention, making clear choices as to what each project is and why it’s important to be witnessed by an audience. Across genres and forms, of which I tackle many, the richness, aliveness, and specificity of the energetic transfer between performer and audience is ultimately what creates a gripping work of performance. As a producer, I put as much care into the audience experience as I do the art itself, emphasizing the communal nature of live art, immersing the audience in the world of the play, and facilitating conversations which otherwise wouldn't have occurred.
My original work, heavily influenced by butoh (舞踏), sits in the liminal space between theatre, dance, and performance art. It treats the body as a universal material capable of endless transformation, presenting liberation as something enacted and witnessed. I’m particularly interested in staging the countercultural, non-normative body-mind connection as a site of neurodivergence and human complexity.
My theatre is a place where we can be ourselves, where we can be liberated from the shackles on our thoughts and behaviors and reemerge with greater empathy for one another. In many ways, my work is not about learning something new, but unlearning the systems which cloud our capacity for joy, curiosity, and faith in one another. I support this aim through disciplined artistic integrity, hyperspecificity, and an interdisciplinary, multicultural, and uniquely autistic perspective on performance.
Bio
Corin Wiggins (they/he/she) is a theatre practitioner: a director, producer, choreographer, deviser, and performer. Their practice encompasses the creation of original work and international collaboration across theatre, dance, and performance. Alongside a presence across the United States, they have created and performed in Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Czechia (and more), reaching audiences from around the world via numerous international festivals.
Human liberation is the central concern of Corin’s theatre, which is always dedicated to high quality material and mature artistic discipline. As an autistic artist, Corin’s practice centers the non-normative body and mind and sees the stage as a vital space for uninhibited human expression - the only place they feel they can fully be themselves.
In recent years, Corin’s original work has come to emphasize the dance theatre form butoh (舞踏), choreographing original productions, cultivating butoh ensembles, teaching on the collegiate level, and performing as a principal dancer in Iván-Daniel Espinosa’s internationally touring butoh company. Corin performed the first professional butoh performance in South Carolina history.
Corin is a classically trained actor via the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities and holds a B.F.A. in Physical Theatre from a joint program between Coastal Carolina University and the Accademia dell’Arte in Tuscany, Italy. They are currently based in Los Angeles, California.
