In her performances, Nancy Forest Brown assumes any one of a number of fictional personae, developed to such a degree that they seem to have been granted autonomous existence. But Brown always goes farther than the simple presentation of these characters, framed by the artificial limits of the stage. She always constructs a larger context that includes the audience and that often forces that audience into a confrontation with the character. In the past, Brown’s performances took place in unlikely locations, both public and private, often without warning (although rumor continues to play an