Local Interventions: Civic Engagement through Shakespearean Performance

Abstract

This paper reports on and analyzes research with the New World Shakespeare Company in Salt Lake City, Utah. I spent six weeks as an embedded researcher with the company, following an ethnographic model that centers the theatrical practitioners and seeks to learn from them. The paper reports on the production process for the company's Fall 2019 performance of Much Ado About Nothing, analyzing the ways in which an internal community of amateur theatrical practitioners was formed around a common theme and purpose. I then discuss the ways in which the company's feminist interpretation of the play was evident in the production. Finally, I argue that the company, through its practice of donating all proceeds to a local charity, engages in community-building in its larger civic environment. I argue that this community theater has a profound effect upon its audiences by utilizing Shakespeare's plays to engage with and comment upon issues of immediate civic importance.