Towards a praxis of resistance: Popular theatre and /as empowerment.
Item
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Title
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Towards a praxis of resistance: Popular theatre and /as empowerment.
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Identifier
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AAI9946168
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identifier
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9946168
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Creator
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Green, Sharon L.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Jill Dolan
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Date
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1999
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater
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Abstract
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This dissertation examines theatrical practices that strive to empower either their participants, their spectators, or both. The emergence of these theatrical practices roughly coincides with the independence of many African, Latin American and Caribbean countries from European colonizers in the 1960s and 1970s. These theatrical practices comprised what I argue was a popular theatre movement which developed in response to post-colonial forces of liberation, imperialism and oppression. This dissertation explores the dynamics of popular theatre and interrogates its ability to be a radical political practice, in an effort to understand when and how political theatre can be most efficacious. I argue that making performance political is a process which continuously exists in a dialectical relationship with other processes of history and culture. I argue that the meanings generated by popular theatre performances---and hence the role they play in cultural struggles---are contingent on the context in which they exist. As the context in which popular theatre exists shifts temporally, geographically, culturally or otherwise, its politics too will change. This dissertation explores the political and cultural implications of such contextual shifts.;Chapter one, "Critical Convergence: Theatre, Social Action and Pedagogy," charts the emergence and development of popular theatre, and interrogates its operative principles of empowerment and participation. Chapter two examines the founding of the Jamaican women's theatre collective, Sistren, and the political, social and economic conditions out of which it emerged. Chapter three charts some of the changes Sistren faced as the political landscape within and outside of Jamaica shifted. Chapter four, "Beyond Boal," explores some of the ways in which Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed techniques have been adapted in the U.S. and Canada and the implications of these contextual shifts. The final chapter, "Grassroots Theatre in a Era of Cultural Globalization," explores the potential consequences of globalization for a theatrical practice whose meanings and efficacy are contingent on locality. The dissertation strives for a deeper understanding of the ways in which popular theatre can be used as an efficacious site for cultural and political interventions.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
