Tessa Carr - Böcker

For the thirtieth volume of Theatre Symposium, the editors return to a topic first proposed over twenty years ago in volume 9 (theatre and politics in the twentieth century), reimaged for a broader, more comprehensive time frame. In this volume on theater and politics, scholars explore what constitutes the political, how the political is performed, and how theatre engages with politics over time, drawing on the following framing questions: What is the historical and ongoing role of theatre in framing our ideas and conversations about politics? How do politics and theatre engage one another in an increasingly mediated landscape? From theatrical analysis of the political arena to political analysis of the theatrical stage, discussions of theatre and politics can challenge ethical, theoretical, and artistic considerations of our world.The current moment presents a compelling opportunity to revisit, revise, and reengage. Certainly, in the twenty-one volumes since volume 9, the political landscape both nationally and internationally has shifted dramatically. The past two years specifically have seen an increase in the already prevalent presence of the political in our daily discourse. The COVID-19 global pandemic and ongoing racial reckonings have further unmoored many systems and structures, requiring action and change. Rather than a moment of pause or passivity, pandemic times have seen an increase in political activity and political discourse on the local, national, and global levels. Within the theatre and performance communities, these calls to action have resulted in movements like #weseeyouWAT and other calls to break down old systems and create new ones, to privilege access for those of the global majority, and to explicitly demand advocacy and activism. Organizations like the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC) itself crafted new ethos statements and engaged in the necessary work of boldly foregrounding equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility at the center of all its efforts.The editors and contributors to this volume respond to the immediacy of this moment and the clarion call for change. From Shakespeare to new productions like Alabama Love Stories, presented at Auburn University, contributors grapple with a range of examples, contemporary and historical, and argue with renewed urgency for the importance of intentionally interrogating the interplay of performance and politics. The essays in this volume demonstrate that theatre and performance cannot rise to this moment or even begin to address it without doing that substantial work to clean its own house and create accessible new spaces.ContributorsChase Bringardner / Tessa Carr / Lily Climenhaga / Abena Foreman-Trice / Emma Givens / TK Manwill / Boomie Pederson / Royal ShirÉe / Teresa Simone / Tony Tambasco / Jonathon W. Taylor / Justice von Maur / Patricia Ybarra

This engaging book offers a broad spectrum of collaborative and accessible performance-based practices that promote social justice within college classrooms, rehearsal spaces, campus stages and local communities.Performance is an inherently collective and embodied endeavor. As a form of communication activism, performance also serves as a powerful mode of teaching and learning that demands equitable relationships and mutually established group norms that offer all a seat at the table. Informed by intersectional feminist and antiracist theories, the authors present collaborative performance case studies, ranging from interventions into local histories of oppression to creative protests of campus and cultural practices, to staged interruptions of social discourses and representational systems that perpetuate structural inequities. Illustrating the multiple possibilities of performance, the book offers adaptable tools, evocative stories, and vivid examples from diverse bodies of work. This engaged scholarship is committed to honoring multiple forms of knowledge, acknowledging and building the capacities of individuals and organizations, identifying and developing more spaces for critical dialogue, and envisioning and performing a more socially just world.This book is essential reading for scholars and practitioners of communication, theater, performance studies, arts-based education, and social justice activism.

This engaging book offers a broad spectrum of collaborative and accessible performance-based practices that promote social justice within college classrooms, rehearsal spaces, campus stages and local communities.Performance is an inherently collective and embodied endeavor. As a form of communication activism, performance also serves as a powerful mode of teaching and learning that demands equitable relationships and mutually established group norms that offer all a seat at the table. Informed by intersectional feminist and antiracist theories, the authors present collaborative performance case studies, ranging from interventions into local histories of oppression to creative protests of campus and cultural practices, to staged interruptions of social discourses and representational systems that perpetuate structural inequities. Illustrating the multiple possibilities of performance, the book offers adaptable tools, evocative stories, and vivid examples from diverse bodies of work. This engaged scholarship is committed to honoring multiple forms of knowledge, acknowledging and building the capacities of individuals and organizations, identifying and developing more spaces for critical dialogue, and envisioning and performing a more socially just world.This book is essential reading for scholars and practitioners of communication, theater, performance studies, arts-based education, and social justice activism.