Week # 4 - Performance

I think the real danger is in playing safe and avoiding the truth of your imagination in your art and in your life. -Jane Campion

Bill T. Jones (Dancer/Choreographer)
His 1994 work Still/Here was developed out of workshops he conducted across the country with people living with terminal illnesses. It was famously NOT reviewed the New Yorker’s Arlene Croce.

Augusto Boal (Director)
Brazilian born, Boal believed the Aristotelean model of theater was a tool for continued oppression. Instead he established a Theater of the Oppressed. Arrested, tortured and exiled for his activities, Boal spent many years abroad before returning to Brazil. Currently there are Theater of the Oppressed activities around the world. Some of Boal’s work grew out of his association with Paolo Freire. Over the years Boal has expanded his basic techniques to develop Invisible Theater which creates performances in public spaces (art galleries, the street) before an unwitting audience as well as Forum Theater, Legislative Theater and others.

Theater of the Oppressed in Rio

Theater of the Oppressed in Soweto

Maryat Lee (playwright, founder Eco-Theater)
Maryat Lee created street theater with communities in New York in the 1950s. After achieving some success, she returned to her roots in West Virginia to create Eco-Theater which utilized the stories and traditions of rural communities to create an indigenous theater.

Assignment
Create a live documentary performance. Max time - one minute per person (One person piece gets one minute, two person piece gets two minutes, etc.). The documentary can be in the form of dance, theater, happening. You will perform it for the class next week. If it is integral to your piece to perform it in another space you can video tape the event & present that instead. Remember its documentary - collect the story first then transpose it to the form of a performance.