Radical Street Performance: Global Perspectives
Professor Jan Cohen-Cruz
New York University, New York. N.Y.
Tisch School of the Arts
Drama Department (Spring 2005)
Examination of performances worldwide that take place in public by-ways rather than theatre buildings, and that are intended to question or re-envision dominant arrangements of power. We’ll look at street theatrics that take place on large and small scale, support a range of agendas, take on single issues and broad visions, and are performed by professional actors or by people driven by a tremendous incentive to change their own reality.The course is organized around five generalcategories of street performance: agit-prop, witness, integration, utopia, tradition. Each is accompanied by readings, a brief response paper, discussion, videos, as well as an opportunity to try it out at least in class, and in three cases, out in the world: Invisible or semi-Invisible Theater, Celebratory Performance, and an Election Project using a form of your choice. Students will ally the third performance to a larger context, either by directly partnering their group with an activist group or with one of the national candidates’ local organization. A five page research paper consists of assessing a street performance or demonstration taking place in nyc this semester vis-a-vis both efficacy and aesthetics. A final exam based on class readings concludes the semester’s work.
Readings with asterisks are in the class packet; the rest are in Radical Street Performance: An International Anthology. Both texts are edited by JCC and available at the NYU Book Store.
INTRODUCTION
Week 1:
Tues 1/20 Introduction
. . . to subject, each other, course. Street theatre and performance. Clip of Troupers.
Th 1/22 The Popular
Read Introduction to book, Strinati*, and Schechter* excerpts. What makes a performance popular? Exercise in pairs: street-scale entrance, maximum one-minute long act, street-scale exit.
Week 2:
Tu 1/27 Public Space
Read “Public vs. Private Space”* (Hayduk and Shepard) and “Stepping Off the Sidewalk*” (Duncombe) from From ACT Up to the WTO, and Doreen Massey excerpt.* What is the significance of performing in the street and other more-or-less public spaces?
Th 1/29 Social Movements
From the point of view of social movement theory, what is the role of performance? Each student research a social movement that thrived between 1960 and 2003, international in scope, and an example of a lnked performance project. Bring notes to class. Read Cieri* and Boyte*.
I. AGIT-PROP
Week 3:
Tu 2/3 Array of Agit-Prop Technique
Read Handke, agit-prop section intro and Tolstoy, Snow, Hashmi, Knezevic. What defines a street performance as agit-prop? How varied is agit-prop? Shayoni Mitra presents on Jana Natya Manch, screens video clip of the troupe.
Th 2/5 Workshop
Bring news clippings, propose themes for agit-prop pieces, form groups, prepare, show, discuss.
Week 4:
Tu 2/10 Playing to the Media
Read Lacy/ Labowitz and Solomon. Screen video clip. Analyze points of contact between demonstrations and theatrical performances. To what degree does agit-prop address a larger audience by way of the media? How is a demonstration a performance? Response paper due.
II. INTEGRATION
Th 2/12 Primary Project Workshop Bring research according to the group you are in. Commit to where to perform and work out making connections to that end (e.g., if in a class or dining hall, etc.)
Week 5:
Tues 2/17 Theatre as (part of) Direct Action
Read Intro to section, Richard, Cook/Kirk, Berlant/Freeman, Rosenthal, Cohen-Cruz* interview with Boal, and Schwarzman* on partnerships between actors and activists. How does integrating one’s theatrics into an ongoing political movement enhance efficacy? What is the challenge? Where are the possible conflicts of interest?
Th 2/19 Workshop Groups rehearse primary projects. Class critiques.
Week 6:
Tues 2/24 Invisibility
Read Boal, Kohtes,* and Gablik/ Kirshenblatt-Gimblett*. Precedents in avant-garde life/ art experiments and vernacular culture.
Thurs 2/26 Workshop
Some groups adapt their projects to invisible or semi-invisible theater to do in the subway or elsewhere on Tuesday.
Week 7:
Tu 3/2 Perform Primary Project Performances
Some in classroms, dining halls, subway. For Thursday: bring in a text by Bush and same issue as discussed by a Democratic candidate (or same issue as framed, linguistically, by people on two sides.). Note different ways of framing issue and different uses of language.
Th 3/4 Critique Primary Project Performances
Assess performance projects. Develop a set of criteria for work with aesthetic and activist goals. Discuss the different language used by Republicans and Democrats for same issue (or any two sides, e.g., tax relief or supporing all Americans; Right to Life or Pro-choice.)
Week 8:
Tu 3/9 Political Dramaturgies
From Gandhi (read Erikson)* to King (read Taylor Branch).* What makes these actions “performance?”What role does their performativity play in their efficacy?
Th 3/11 Life/art experiments from the women’s movement
Read Piper and excerpt from Moira Roth*. Why did women artists play such a large role in this movement? What is its relationship to the idea that “the personal is the political?”
Response paper due.
SAT 3/13 - S U N 3/21: S P R I N G B R E A K
III. WITNESS
Week 9:
Tu 3/23 Street Religion
Read Witness section Intro, Cohen-Cruz, Rev Billy essay by Jill Lane.* Screen video of Church Ladies. What is the impact of religious personas in the street?
Th 3/25 Witness to Large Social Events
Read Durland, Taylor, Waller. What kind of performance can one make when one can’t do anything? What is the importance of place in this model? How does witnessing effect the witnesser/ witnessed/ others?
Week 10:
Tu 3/30 Witnessing to Bring Conditions to Broader Consciousness
Discuss Sullivan, Chatterjee, Giammatteo. How does performance raise public consciousness?
Witness response paper due.
Th 4/1 Workshop
Bring news clippings, propose themes for witness pieces, form groups, prepare, show, discuss.
IV. UTOPIA
Week 11:
Tu 4/6 Spectacle
Read Introduction to section, Welch, Kershaw, Bakhtin*. Screen part of Triumph of the Will.
Th 4/8 Oppositional Movements and Celebration
Read Lebel, Schechner, Barba and Hoffman. Screen video of Bread and Puppet.
V. TRADITION
Week 12:
Tu 4/13 Ritual and Social Change
Read section Introduction, Conquergood, Broyles-Gonzalez, Barrios, Myerhoff*. Screen Campesino excerpt. Discuss paradox via Myerhoff. Plan groups for Thurs workshop.
Utopia Response paper due.
Th 4/15 Prepare final performances.
Week 13:
Tu 4/20 Variations on Traditional Performance
Discuss readings by Byam, Ngugi, Sussman, and Bell. Screen video clip of Circus Amok. Tradition response paper due.
Th 4/22 Perform final pieces
Week 14:
Tu 4/27 Critique final performances from last Thursday.
Screen Lacy’s “Whisper the Waves, the Wind.” Research papers due.
Th 4/29: Informal presentations of research papers. Screen Church Ladies.
RADICAL STREET PERFORMANCE FINAL CLASS REVISION
Tu 2/12: Utopia response paper due. Discuss assigned Tradition essays (Intro, Conquergood, Barrios, Broyles-Gonzales, final packet reading by Myerhoff). Make decisions about and groups for final street perf. Screen Cirucs Amok video.
Th 2/14: Workshop final performances.
Tu 2/20: Finish reading on Tradition and turn in Tradition response papers. Jennifer Miller is the guest, who will discuss doing street perf and will critique works-in-progress.
Th 4/22: Perform final pieces.
Tu 4/27: Critique final performances from last Thursday. Screen “Church Ladies.” Abstract of research papers due, i.e. real description of real paper with at least two real sources.
Th 4/29: Presentations of research papers-in-progress. Must be able to articulate subject matter and several findings to date.
MONDAY MAY 1:
Research papers due in Jan’s box. No shorter than 5 pgs., no longer than 5 ½ pgs, typed, double-spaced, 12 point font. With citation apparatus, i.e. cite at least two sources in developing your thesis on researching elements of a street performance.
Remember: plagiarism is intellectual theft and taken very seriously by the Department. If you are unclear about what constitutes plagiarism, ask Jan.
Note extension on final paper, which is the final exam, in the spirit of a "take home" final exam.
Class Requirements:
- Attend class, keep up with readings, participate in discussions and workshops.
- Five 2-3 page response papers, one on each section of class. Define category in 2-3 sentences and then choose one idea around which to make an argument of your own, using examples from the readings to support it. Each response paper should be no less than 2, no more than 3 pgs typed, double-spaced, 12 point font.
- Paper: 5 pages, as described in syllabus introductory paragraph. No shorter than 5 pgs., no longer than 5 ½ pgs, typed, double-spaced, 12 point font.
- Three Street Performances
- Project: ally last performance to a larger context and perform it as such.
- Final exam: in class.
Street Performance Class Packet
- Schechter, Joel, excerpts from Popular Theater
- Strinati, Dominic, from Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture
- Massey, Doreen, excerpt from Space, Place and Gender
- Hayduk and Shepard, “Public vs. Private Spaces, Battlegrounds, and Movements”
- Duncombe, Stephen, “Stepping off the Sidewalk: Reclaiming the Streets/ NYC”
- Boyte, Harry, Chapter 1 from The Backyard Revolution
- Cieri, Marie, “You Cross the Line” from Cieri and Peeps, Activists Speak Out
- Lane, Jill “Reverend Billy: Preaching, Protest, and Postindustrial Flanerie”
- Cohen-Cruz, Jan “Politicizing Theatre and Theatricalizing Politics” in Playing Boal
- Schwarzman, Mat essay on artists and activists
- Kohtes, “Invisible Theatre...”
- Gablik interviewing Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, “The Aesthetics of Everyday Life”
- Roth, Moira, from The Amazing Decade
- Erikson, Erik, excerpt, Gandhi’s Truth
- Branch, Taylor, excerpt, Parting the Waters
- Bakhtin on carnival
- Meyerhoff, Barbara (ritual/ paradox article)
Open Invitation to participate in Rev. Billy’s FIRST AMENDMENT MOB!
Join us -- recite the single sentence That guarantees the right of free speech and peaceable assembly.
When: Tuesday the 23rd, 6:30 PM, for 30 minutes.
Where: WTC Path Station on Church Street at Ground Zero (Subway: "A" to Cortland, "N/R" to Rector, "4/6" walk over from City Hall)
What: Come down the steps into station, a large boxy room with a view of GZ. And bring a cell phone!
How: First, memorize the 1st Amendment, or wear it on your sleeve, or have a friend prompt you over the phone. Enter the station repeating phrases of the Amendment. As you do this, you will be surrounded by others on cell phones doing the same thing. Pretend you don't know them.
Then, after ten minutes of repetition, say the whole thing forcefully. We all get better at the same rate and gather, reciting the great words in unison. We become a crowd with one common statement. Finally: We repeat the phrase big and clean. The room is "live" and acts as a natural amplifier – this is exciting.
17 of us did this last Tuesday and we recommend it. The words are so powerful, the rhythms and the meaning...We wrote some impressions on REVBILLY.COM, in the Stop Shopping Monitor.
First Amendment of the US Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; Or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; Or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, And to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Getting put in pens at peace marches is ILLEGAL. Ground Zero cannot be a SUPER MALL. Bring our rights under the Constitution back to the LIGHT. www.revbilly.com
