Advanced performance workshop with research including performance-based methodology, theory, and analytical research skills in developing written and performance works. Topics include cross-disciplinary arts, dramaturgy, and collaborative practice.

In this course we will examine acts of solidarity through performance, and create interdisciplinary performances inspired by our research. We will watch and analyze performances of solidarity that have taken place in formal theater spaces as well as in public spaces such as the streets, in front of prisons and other oppressive institutions, in war zones, in work places, in TV and film, and on social media. We will also consider our own personal and social identities as they relate to the conversations we are having, and discuss performances of solidarity that we have seen or experienced firsthand. Through dialogue, writing, and embodied practice we will explore the efficacy of these performances, as well as the distinction between “performative” activism and active solidarity. Alongside our research and dialogue, we will develop material for performance using practices from Augusto Boal’s “Theater of the Oppressed,” Tectonic Theater Project’s “Moment Work” methodology, the Viewpoints, Somatic Technique, and other generative practices. Students will present what they have created together to engage the larger campus community in the acts of solidarity they are proposing. All students will be part of the creative and production process in some way whether through writing, design, embodied performance, or some other means, but students will have the choice of whether they’d like to be on stage or behind the scenes for the final performance.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills