Cities as Studios: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Community-Engaged Theatre Through the CitySpeak Project

Abstract

CitySpeak presents an interdisciplinary curriculum of Visual and Performing Arts (V+PA) and Urban Studies that implements a model of research- and arts-based urban planning and community development created in partnership by a curriculum of Visual and Performing Arts and Urban Studies. Through collaboration with community-based organizations that serve a city’s diverse populations, CitySpeak creates mini public squares in which the voices of the city can be amplified, heard, and empowered. In this model, urban research, including interviews and focus groups, provides material that is analyzed for core themes, which, along with the transcribed interviews, provides the basis for devising a theatrical performance. The performance, in turn, becomes the nexus for discussion by citizens and city leaders on the issues explored in the performance leading, ultimately, to planning for ameliorating both existing and potential problems in urban planning and community development. Through its curriculum, CitySpeak students learn to recognize the tension between the public image of the city and the individual citizens’ perceptions. Beyond learning to recognize that tension, CitySpeak activates citizens’ voices by bringing them into the new public square through devising work that encourages the city leaders, citizens, and students to listen to the diversity of viewpoints around them.