One thing that stuck with me from this week's reading was Las Hijas de Violencia. It reminded me of the forum theatre we did on Wednesday. More specifically, the power of confrontation against the oppressor. I think a lot of the time, they(oppressors) don't expect such a reaction which gives the oppressed a sort of power. I also think the use of the confetti gun instead of a violent weapon. In this way, the oppressed doesn’t become the oppressor through gaining their freedom. Then the addition of the song adds another element of surprise. The use of punk amplifies the harasser looking ridiculous as mentioned. They're bringing active energy to the problem of street harassment. I think their movement works because it makes noise and not just audibly. The article mentions taking inspiration from Pussy Riot. They are a Russian feminist protest and performance group that performs guerilla gigs of punk rock music in public places. They wear neon balaclavas and acid-bright tigh...
Posts
I first heard about Las Abuelas (or madres) de la Plaza de Mayo from Professor Popescu in my first year writting seminar called Social Justice Warriors of the Americas. Conversation about this topic started while we were reading Kiss of The Spider Woman by Manuel Puig. I remember Prof. Popescu talking about her experience working with the grandmothers and the mothers, and how much rehearsing these people had to do before going to the Plaza de Mayo. These discussions helped reinforce my ideas about the role performance plays in social justice and social change movements. In my first post I talked about "Un Violador en tu Camino," a performance that happened in Chile. I talked about the time it takes for the participant to learn and rehearse the chant and the choreography. These readings and videos reminded me of this and I thought it was a great opportunity to talk about it again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB7r6hdo3W4&t=136s The video "In...
Based on the Street Harassment in Mexico City reading, I began to wonder if colleges can implement similar strategies of performance to improve their title nine offices. Title IX is often the resource many college campuses refer students to in the case of any form of violation or abuse. However, many students argue that such resources are only so valuable to students. Similar to the performance art in Mexico City, are such shows necessary to evoke change? Will they be effective on a college campus? This image shows a demonstration at Louisiana State University for improvements in their Title IX offices and strategies. Is a formal protest demonstration like this that much different from the confetti method used in Mexico City? The movement in Mexico City aimed to draw attention to sex offenders and violations by shooting a confetti gun. Some would argue that the gun advocates for violence and exposure of predators while the image of the protest could represent a more peaceful approach t...
Natalie Delgadillo’s article is about a Mexican girl group called "Las Hijas de Violencia" (The Daughters of Violence) who use punk rock music and performance art to raise awareness and combat street harassment in Mexico City put onto women on a daily basis. The group is composed of three members - Ana Karen, Ana Beatriz, and Beztabeth. The goal of the group is to combat street harassment in a way that exposes and potentially embarasses anyone who has choice comments at the women while they are walking down the street using confetti and colorful costumes to draw attention to the issue and encourage people to speak up against harassment. The group's creation stems from their own experienced street harassment and wanted to take a stand against it. Their performances have gained popularity in Mexico City and beyond gaining attention on the internet, and have been praised for their creativity and impact in bringing attention to a serious problem in Mexican society that's ...
In this week's reading, one thing that stood out to me was how Las Hijas de Violencia are confronting and challenging street harassment. I think in my mind confrontation has always looked like going up to someone and being direct. The idea of confronting the person who has just catcalled me does not seem enjoyable. I find the twist Las Hijas de Violencia add really intriguing. By confronting these men with a confetti gun and a punk song, they are the ones made uncomfortable. It gives the ones being harassed agency over the situation. One of the women stated in the video embedded in the article how you should have " fun with it so that you're not left feeling violated from what happened, and you're able to move on and still have a great day." They highlight how since starting to do this, they feel more at peace walking down the street. As Karen shares, "now we know that when we're walking and someone harasses us, it's not our fault and it's...
Blog Post 3: Katharine Barrett In what ways is our identity a performance in and of itself? When I first learned about las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, it was through a high school Spanish class. I had done an entire research report on the Dirty War in Argentina, and the activism cultivated by the mothers of the desaparecidos (the disappeared) was incredibly inspiring and also gut-wrenchingly saddening. Now, as a Hispanic Studies major at Bowdoin, I have learned quite a bit about the dictatorship of Videla, and the militaristic removal / "reorganization" of a huge population of Argentina in the late 70s and 80s. I have also gained insight on the movement of mothers, their organization's growth, and the use of genetic testing to make such a tangible impact on their fight to find grandchildren. However, I had never considered the ways in which feminism, maternal identity, and performance played a role in their activism. I hadn't noted the performance element of using ...
One thing that struck me was the light-hearted satire nature of the Daughters of Violence in Mexico City. The city is ranked the worst in the for sexual violence against women. This girl group is fighting back against the harassment with punk rock, performance art, and confetti. The vide showed them shooting confetti guns at men who were cat calling or other forms of harassing them on the street. After the confetti shot, they would perform a “rendition of ‘Sexista Punk’” a song they wrote for these occasions. The girls were laughing and having a good time with it while the men clearly were uncomfortable and didn’t know how to react. While clearly a very serious topic, these girls are protesting it and pushing back by having some fun doing it. The satire nature of their social protest helps lighten the mood and attacks the issue from a more positive lens. Sexual harassment is a huge issue nationwide and the #MeToo movement has helped shed light on the pervasive...
The suite of social actions we learned about are tied together through a willingness to disrupt public spaces and create discomfort. In this way, Guerilla protest seems reminiscent of Brecht's "epic theater. " Performance is alienating—it challenges the spectator to reflect, be disturbed, and hopefully take action. Occupying and agitating public space is a natural next step of epic theater— the fervor for change is taken directly to reality, rather than being relegated to theaters. This scene in Eric Andre's TV show makes me think about Guerilla Performance. Is this bit, a commentary on the exploitation and dehumanization of workers? Probably not. Is this supposed to be profound, rather than an attempt to make comedy at other people's expense? Probably not. Nevertheless, this performance is disruptive. It creates a scene in a public space and demands people's attention. Train riders cannot just spectate as he comes forward with his milk—they must flee, resp...
The idea of identifying a movement with a piece of clothing was one thing that stuck out to me in today’s reading. In the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the women were easily identifiable by their white headscarves. Even the video we watched on the Abuelas of the Plaza de Mayo with its cartoon drawings to identify movements used the headscarves as a symbol. I thought this was a powerful tactic especially considering the publicity of the location of protest and the length of the protests, it is a clear marker of the strength of the movement to have everyone in a matching piece of clothing to show that they are standing together. This made me think of the #whitewednesday’s campaign that is happening in Iran. This is not a perfect comparison, as a large part of the goal of the #whitewednesday’s campaign is about clothing itself- the clothing is not just a symbol of support, but a revolutionary statement in itself as Iranian women are protesting to be able to wear the clothes they want, inc...
I first learned about the madres in Prof. Popescu's "Women, Performance, and Activism in Latin America" course two years ago. That class in general really shaped the way I thought about activism but I was quite intrigued by the madres and how their success came from something as simple as walking around the town square. Taylor touched on this in her essay but the madres really played into stereotypes to make their activism successful. The people going missing were typically younger (20's - 30's) because they said or did something that the government took as a threat to their power. In most cases, the missing had just questioned the political state of the country and were taken away and killed for it. The madres were also questioning the government but the fact that they were mothers and the fact that they chose to stage their protest in such a visible space is what saved them - and even still, many disappeared or were threatened because of their affiliation with ...
Before reading "Theatre of The Oppressed" I had not thought about how different situations affected the way theater is perceived. I did not think about the barrier between the actors / performers and the audience. Also, I did not think about the possibility of the "audience" being part of the performance. I like the idea of theatre being a "weapon" and it being a way for people to express themselves without the need of the standard roles (main character, background character, audience, etc). Something else that struck me was the concept of invisible theatre. What caught my attention is the lack (or not) of a stage, or in other words, creating a stage based on where you are performing. I also like the idea of people watching the performance and not thinking to much about it and just enjoying it. Even though everything (or most things) are planned, the public is allowed to "interrupt," and hence be part of the performance. The concept of i...
One thing that stuck out to me from this week's reading and videos was Theatre of the Oppressed and the various practices actors do to deepen roles. Specifically was the game where a group expresses an animal and looks for their mate. How each person’s idea of how their animal would be expressed or acted out is different, especially with no sound. Then later in the paragraph how the portrayal of occupations varies given the position of that actor and how that can reveal one's opinions. I connected this to forum theater and how in both the participant's inner opinions and criticism are revealed. Forum theatre allows the audience to engage and not just be a spectator. They have to focus on each solution and whether they agree or not. This in return is a practice/challenge for the actor, they have to improvise but also place the spectator and actor on the same, equal level. It attaches to one's power to choose material for inquiry and frame, shape, script, and perform st...
This post will focus on the correlations between politics and theater. Augusto Boal makes it a point to highlight how theater is political which makes me question: is politics is theater? Boal believes that by nature humans are political and since theater is a result of human activities it too is political. Politics and theater tend to portray different messages to society. For example, theater is not generally taken as seriously by people in society while politics is taken very seriously and impacts all people. Elections, voting, and media portrayals are all outlets in which politics is performed. If politics is a form of theater, then politicians would be the ones performing the theatrics. During the 2020 presidential debates between Donald Trump and President Biden, many people tuned in to hear out the political perspectives hashed out in real time. Eventually, as the debate continued the audience quickly realized that it was turning into a political spectacle based on ho...
When reading Theatre of the Oppressed , one thing that stood out had to do with the Invisible Theatre. I thought it was interesting to have the actors blend into to their surroundings. It sounds and is slightly risky. As the author explains, "And it is precisely this invisible quality that will make the spectator act freely and fully, as if he were living a real situation - and, after all, it is a real situation!" (Boal, 125) I think invisible theater helps bring both spectators and actors together. There is no wall between them. Without the spectators knowledge, they are part of the show and can easily engage with whatever situation or scene is in front of them. I agree with what the author says, "the impact produced by this free theatre is much more powerful and longer lasting" (Boal, 126). I can imagine all the interactions the spectators have stays with them. When reading this portion of the chapter, the first thing that came to my mind ...
Before reading Theatre of the Oppressed , I had not realized the enormous variety that exists in genre and form for theatrical production. Particularly with regard to crafting performances for social change or activist intentions, I was really intrigued by the concepts of "Invisible Theatre" and "Simultaneous Dramaturgy." I am curious about the finale of Invisible performances. Do the spectators, having thus far participated in the performance unknowingly, eventually come to find out that the whole spectacle was meditated, rehearsed, and produced with great detail? Does this change how they view the message that they gained? When thinking about simultaneous dramaturgy types of performances, it seems as if this genre runs parallel to invisible theatre in the sense that the audience plays a direct role in influencing the progression and direction of the plot, however in this case, they are aware of their influence and actively participate with freedom to act on imagi...
Yolanda Broyles-González's article "El Teatro Campesino and the Mexican Popular Performance Tradition" looks at the development and significance of the El Teatro Campesino theater company founded in the 1960s to support the United Farm Workers movement. Broyles-González argues that El Teatro Campesino draws on a long history of Mexican popular performance traditions like carnival and religious pageantry, as well as European avant-garde theater techniques. She examines how El Teatro Campesino's performances incorporated elements of these traditions, such as satire, physical comedy, and music, to engage audiences and create a sense of community. Broyles-González also explores how the theater company's performances challenged dominant cultural narratives and offered a vision of social change that centered the experiences and struggles of Chicano farm workers. A quote that resonated with me was that "the real language of African theatre is to be found in the stru...
I was quite intrigued by the concept of invisible theatre. Theater that happens in a common space (ex. a restaurant) where it doesn't seem scripted or a performance to the audience because they can interrupt it. I think the reason I like it so much is because the people around you don't know that this is planned. It seems like this is a part of the daily life and has ways to directly challenge social issues. Through invisible theater, you reach a new audience. You interact with people who may not go to the theatre and you bring people into the conversation who may otherwise be a voice left out. Reading about invisible theater made me wonder if I have ever seen a performance of it and then made me question whether the audience would ever really know what they had been a part of if the idea is for it to be invisible. I was reminded of the TV show "What would you do?" which creates miniature theatrical scenes and waits to see how long it takes for someone to intervene i...
S imultaneous dramaturgy, image theater, and forum theater made me think about improvisational comedy/theater. I'm going to focus my post on long-form improv, as practiced by the Up Rights Citizens Brigade because that's the style I practice. Performances that conform to the conventions of regular theater, sketch comedy for example, create and enforce definite boundaries between audience members and performers—with one allowed to communicate and one relegated to spectating. The actors too usually get very little say on their characters' decisions, let alone agency over the overarching narrative—scenes are dictated to, not formed at the behest of the performers nor the audience. The stage crew, actors, and audience work together to realize an illusion—they see a world, not a workplace. Improv disrupts these conventions. Performers work in dialogue with audience members, prompting audience members for ideas, through interviews, word requests, etc, and taking audience sounds...
The two men walking in the film American Perspective: Another View said a few things that really resonated with me. The first is that when we (American students) are taught about the World Wars, the 50s and 60s we are only taught through one lens: White American middle/upper class. On of the men in the clip says that theatre gives us a "medium for our OWN voices and not being spoken for." This got me thinking about the lens in which Native American relations, the Atlantic Slave Trade, the Civil rights movement were taught to me. Who was writing the literature we used in classrooms? Was it historian with Native American or Africana studies backgrounds writing these chapters or Eurocentric focused general historians? Who should be telling which parts of history? The answer to this has a profound impact on the way in which these topics are taught to students. Today, the topic of Critical Race Theory is a heavily debated subject on whether or not it has a place in schools. Argum...
A big sticking point for me in today's reading was the lack of distinction between audience and actor. Early in the semester, we talked about the idea of protest as performing, and the lack of separation that exists here between performer and audience, but this reading made the concept more concrete for me. In Theater of the Oppressed, Boal describes the scene at the restaurant, when an actor refuses to pay for his food, and ends up introducing the group to an idea of redistributing wealth, and he ends with “it is always very important that the actors do not reveal themselves to be actors” he develops this thought by claiming that in leaving out that identification, the actors leave the audience unresolved in the frustrations that they have evoked, so they will bring these thoughts out into their lives rather than leaving them at the scene of the performance (125). This idea of not making clear that you are acting feels morally iffy to me on an instinctual level- if I was made to ...
I found the Federal Theatre Project interesting because it was a prime example of an effort to make theater more of a recognizable form of art. It was particularly striking to me that the cancellation of the program was in part due to the integration it brought about. Furthermore, theater as art is not specific to any one race, class or gender but without the proper funding it becomes profitable for some more than others. To this day, many people do not view art as a profitable source of income or as a lucrative career. Thus showing the stagnancy in our ideas as a society being that it is still very hard for artists to profit from their art. This reminds me of my time studying in Hawaii at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Here I took a Hip Hop dance class where I was tasked to viewing various theater shows as part of our classwork. This is probably one of the most relatable multimedia performances that stuck with me to this day. The Theater department also made it a point ...
A key point that stuck out to me was the National Service Bureau's effect on the Federal Theatre Project and the FTP’s overall effect. The reach of the NSB stretched past cities, further uniting communities to theater and performance. “The NSB’s work building relationships between theater and outside institutions integrated theater into the lives and daily practices of Americans who might have otherwise ignored it.” (Osborne 16) These organizations' reach brought together communities to theater and employment relief for theater professionals. The efforts of these federal projects align with the ideals of the current Green Deal, the support of the people. The Green Deal will work to improve the economy and jobs, yes, but also the sustainability of people which I believe theater factors into. The Green Federal Theatre would push past the FTP in its efforts toward the inclusion of BIPOC, LBGTQ+, and poor working-class individuals, women, and other historically marginalized commu...
Wikipedia's article "The Federal Theater Project" impacted me the most. The TFP could have been controversial, but it gave underrepresented and unpopular artists jobs and opportunities. Additionally, through theater, art became more accessible to those who wished to directly engage with it and those who did not. Art not being funded is not only something that only happened in the past or that only happens now it is something that has been always happening, especially when it criticizes those in power. With this in mind, I have been thinking more and more about the ways people perform for social change, and how many of those times they do it without any type of funding or "real" stage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB7r6hdo3W4&t=136s These readings brought me back to my first year writing seminar where we could discuss these types of performances, the one where you did not need a stage to perform. We watched this video in that class, and I was reminded of i...
One thing that stood out to me from this week's reading came from the "One-Third of a Nation" play. I noticed how the Landlord would repeatedly say "But you can't do without a place to live!" (33). I thought it was cruel for the landlord to use the basic human necessity of needing a roof over your head against those who were looking for a place to live. There is no empathy or understanding coming from this landlord. The conditions in which his tenants live in are inhumane. For the landlord to make these people choose to pay him for a place on his plot with subpar living conditions or to have no place to live in a city that is having a population boom is more than evil. To further demonstrate the cruelness of this landlord, he had in the first act been telling a man, Rosen, who had lost his wife and children in fire which could have been prevented that he cannot be blamed for what had occurred. The landlord explains to Rosen. "But if you can only afford...
I did not know about The Federal Theather Project, but it made intuitive sense to me when I read about it for this week's class. Government-sponsored arts offer decent pay, job security, stable funding for projects, and decrease the limits created by profit-centered artistic decisions. However, such a dependency also creates the political limits and vulnerability that ultimately ended the TFTP. In a capitalist world, I am torn by how artists should go about funding their endeavors- particularly large productions that require immense funding, personnel, etc. Relying on the state for funding allows political actors to co-opt, defang, and stop the proliferation of generative and dissenting art. But relying on the market also sanitizes art- disincentivizing new experimental modes, and encouraging more mainstream politics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bgbHlqa8mg This is part of a stand-up set that Trevor Noah did about a massacre of miners on strike in South Africa. I think t...
Katharine Barrett I really enjoyed reading the Osborne's piece on a 21st century Green New Deal that extends into the arts as the New Deal did under Roosevelt. Osborne built a really strong argument for a Green Federal Theatre Project that mimics the FTP that Roosevelt's New Deal instated. I had never considered the impact that the FTP had for both tangibly employing artists and expanding accessibility to theater for working class populations. One component of the FTP and the proposition of a Green FTP for the 21st century that really struck me was the idea of community building through collaborations and partnerships with nonprofits and organizations in sectors completely distinct from the arts. In the FTP, the National Service Bureau cooperated across regions and divisions to connect theater production with local groups and needs as well as national groups like the American Medical Association, the Red Cross, peace organizations and religious ones as well. How can we adapt t...
I was very intrigued by the Osborne journal article. I remember learning about the Federal Theatre Project in high school but hadn't thought about the applications to our current world. I was instantly reminded of what happened in my community when the pandemic hit. The community theater delayed - then ultimately cancelled there production of Matilda due to it. The dance studio I worked at and took classes at closed its doors forever. And all my close friends at home were struggling. The arts were their livelihoods and without them, they had little income and resorted to picking up other jobs around town. But now, three years into the pandemic, I wonder how this author's perspective may have changed. The arts are resuming and while I don't think they are at the same income level as before, they are slowly being repaired. My local community theater has changed a lot in the shows and voices it is prioritizing. Similar to that of Osborne's proposal, they are highlighting...
One key sticking point from this week's reading are the parallels between the Great Depression and the Covid-19 pandemic's effect on the art industry, but despite the parallels the difference in federal support for the industry between the two periods is striking. The Great Depression decimated the art industry as people struggled to cover the necessities and had little to no discretionary money left for entertainment. The Federal Theatre Project was a program in FDR's New Deal that employed 15,000 men and women within a year to run performances at little to no cost to the audience. This was one of the first programs that went directly to preserving the skills of a worker to prevent these artists from having to shift the industry they worked in. It was a huge success with nearly 30 million people attending a performance in the 4 years of its existence. Covid-19 devastated the arts industry with 99% of arts organizations experiencing financial loss of a combined $17.3 billio...
One thing that stood out to me in this weeks readings was the overcrowding scene from 1/3 of a Nation, where the landlord sells "plots of land" to different desperate New Yorkers. The play allows the audience to visualize the intensity of the overcrowding by having the cast sit uncomfortably close to one another on their patches of land--they are "sitting in restricted, cramped positions... [and] going through some part of their daily routine" (34). I found this scene really powerful even in written form. It brings the inhumanness of overcrowding sharply in perspective by literally making it difficult for the characters to go through their daily routines, and I can imagine that image sticking with an audience member and increasing their sympathy for this issue. I attached here a screenshot of performance activism from instagram that I see as a modern take on the same issue, and one that even employs similar strategies. This example is explicitly political, and ha...