PARADES, PROTESTS AND PAGEANTS

Catalog description

This is an examination of live public performance practices and traditions that are collectively known as "street theater." The course encompasses a survey of the major elements of street theater to gain an understanding of its cultural and social functions. It will include a survey of street theater forms in different historic contexts, ways in which it is applied, and strategies for evaluation its efficacy. The course will also present methodologies of reading and interpreting street theater performances in order to analyze its structures and assess its reception. The impact of increased legal and social control over the public sphere, and the ways that street theater has changed to accommodate broadcast and print media will be considered as a framework for investigating a contemporary street theater. Finally, the course will consider the future of street theater as a viable cultural production.