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Street performance has long been a staple of radical and visionary political movements. Typically, theater transports an audience to a reality apart from the everyday. Radical street performance strives to transport everyday reality to something more ideal. Because the spectators are not necessarily predisposed to theater-going, it takes place in public spaces and is usually free of charge. Potentially, street performance creates a bridge between imagined and real actions, often facilitated by staging the event at the very sites of power the performers seek to transform.
"Radical Street Performance" is the first volume to collect the fascinating array of writings by activists, directors, performers, critics, scholars and journalists who have documented political performance in streets around the world. These essays look at performance in Europe, Africa, China, India and both of the Americas, and describe engagements with issues as diverse as abortion, colonialism, the environment and homophobia, to name only a sampling. Including coverage of the highly performative political activities of organizations such as ACT-UP and Greenpeace, the public spectacle of Abbie Hoffman's political radicalism, and the writings of Tolstoy, this is truly a new kind of primer for the study of politics and performance.
"Radical Street Performance" is an inspirational testimony to this international performance tradition, and a valuable record of a form of theater that continues to flourish in an increasingly apolitical and televisual age. Contributors: Eugenio Barba, Augusto Boal, Dwight Conquergood, Abbie Hoffman, BazKershaw, Nellie Richard, Richard Schechner, Diana Taylor, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, David Welch.