Street performance has a very old history, going back at least to Renaissance Italy with the "Commedia del'arte", to Bertold Brecht who, when he was a young man, used street clowning techniques in the German theater, to the "Living Newspaper" in the US in the 1930s. This is kept alive by contemporary troupes, such as the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Bread and Puppets Theater, the Performers' Workshop Ensemble, and others.
We'll have four or five visits from performing artists, who combine clowning with street theater, as well as reading some of extended plays of the groups mentioned above. Perhaps we will also go and see some of their performances.
Students will be asked to create their own skits and songs, to be performed on the streets of Olympia and Tacoma, where the subject matter is current political events. We'll plan on having two sets of performances, in week 5 and in week 10.
In addition to the performances, students will be asked to study and write a paper on a current or historical performance group.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
4 - Theater performance
2 - Radical American History
2 - Script writing
Registration
Academic Details
American Studies, Performing Arts (music and theater)
$50 fee covers tickets to performances