A version of Performance and Social Change and Community-based theater is taught to a class of 15 graduate and undergraduate students who spend 20-30 hours working with (somewhat vaguely defined) community-based theater groups. These include a program using theater to teach literacy in elementary schools, a theater company for highschool kids on the north side of Minneapolis, a few interactive theater companies, and a Latina women’s group celebrating La Posada.
A lot of time is spent in the classroom asking questions about cultural colonization, social agency, and the responsibility of the artist/community to engage in mutual exchange. Also questioned is the notion of ‘community’ as a positive, homogenous entity, examining the boundaries of ‘community,’ their fluidity/stability, and various ways of addressing the inclusion/exclusion paradigm that often defines community.
The class is a combination of history/theory and practice, looking at the pageantry movement of the early 20th century, Little Theaters, grassroots theaters, separatist political movements identified with theater (such as the Black Arts Movement, El Teatro Campesino), Cornerstone Theater, and contemporary grassroots movements. Boal techniques, guests from Yugoslavia using the work of Grotowski and Barba, and some sociodrama are introduced to the classroom.
