Performing Democracy: International Perspectives on Urban Community-Based Performance (review)

Abstract

Performing Democracy: International Perspectives on Urban Community-Based Performance documents the burgeoning activity in the newly defined field of "community-based theatre." Throughout theatre history, various approaches have self-consciously utilized performance to build and change communities; however, theoretical discourses since the 1960s have foregrounded the extraordinary power of particular performance techniques to create social change and activate democratic processes. Haedicke and Nellhaus define "community-based performance" broadly as that which ". . . often redefines text, initiates unique script development strategies that challenge time-tested techniques for playwriting, . . . introduces participatory performance techniques that blur the boundaries between actor and spectator in order to maximize the participants' agency, . . . produc[es] a two-way learning process not circumscribed by actual performance event or space, and disrupt[s] the traditional actor/audience relationship" (3). With this definition guiding the anthology, relationships emerge among a wide array of political performance forms ranging from skateboarding to presentational dance performance to theatre in education, senior theatre, and performance art. Because the volume juxtaposes scholarly writing with practitioners' "reports from the trenches" (6), the essays, which may appear uneven to some readers, create a rich tapestry of multiple voices and perspectives. The editors have carefully ordered each section so that the more scholarly and theoretical essays help position some of the more descriptive practitioner accounts. Contributors honestly analyze both failures and successes within their own creative work, providing a balanced look at shortcomings in community-based performance practices.