Radical Acts: Theater and Feminist Pedagogies of Change. Edited by Ann Elizabeth Armstrong and Kathleen Juhl. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books, 2007; pp. 329. $17.95 paper.

Abstract

In her preface to Radical Acts: Theater and Feminist Pedagogies of Change, Joan Lipkin addresses the potential audience for this anthology as “Dear Gentle, Pissed Off, Utopian Reader” (3). With this salutation, Lipkin acknowledges the contestatory nature of the collection assembled by editors Ann Elizabeth Armstrong and Kathleen Juhl. Radical Acts is a complicated package of revealing personal narratives, practically theorized pedagogical techniques, and in-depth conversations with artists and activists who imagine theatre practice and performance theory as symbiotic with feminist ideologies. Armstrong and Juhl assert that their contributors “present a matrix that allows us to chart how feminist teachers, artists, and activists seek freedom by engaging multiple perspectives through theatre” (20). This matrix privileges the classroom as a potentially powerful space for communal politics and social change, yet does not supplant its surrounding communities. It is also a structure that recognizes the inherent theatricality of pedagogy to challenge or reinforce (sometimes simultaneously) dominant ideologies of education, theatre practice, and social life. Armstrong and Juhl anticipate their book’s diverse audience, grouping similarly focused essays together with a brief beginning precis to contextualize their tone and trajectory. Such framing is a nod to Ellen Donkin and Susan Clement’s Upstaging Big Daddy: Directing Theater as if Race and Gender Matter (1993). In many ways, Radical Acts is a sequel to Upstaging, which offered a primer for feminist directors, including rehearsal and performance techniques and narratives about the challenges for feminist theatre artists. In Radical Acts’ second part, “Activating Practice,” contributors extend the conversation about feminist praxis begun in Upstaging. A small but significant difference is that these authors offer strategies to produce teachable moments about feminism in the theatre classroom (as opposed to the rehearsal room), while also extolling the use of theatre techniques to illuminate teachable moments in women’s studies classrooms. This section includes conversations with artists/ teachers (e.g., Kate Bornstein, Deb Margolin, Sharon Bridgforth) whose work spans a range of performance and pedagogical interventions. These professionals present their philosophies and techniques, ever mindful of the thorny matrices of difference that circulate for feminist performers who consider their artistic practice inherently linked to education (within or outside a formal classroom setting) and for feminist educators whose postmillennial students may view even third-wave feminism as distant history. Contributions to the anthology’s opening part, “Positioning Our Voices,” invoke a “personal is political” tone reminiscent of the germinal women’s studies collection, This Bridge Called My Back (1981). Included is the 2002 ATHE keynote address by Cherrie Moraga, one of Bridge’s coeditors, which recollects Book Reviews