In this workshop, Larry Bogad leads students through an intense but entertaining exploration of the history, ethics, aesthetics, and practical concerns of tactical performance and creative activism. Students will do performance exercises from traditions such as rebel clowning, Theatre of the Oppressed, nonviolent civil disobedience, and others. They will brainstorm original projects with each other and will watch and critically evaluate videos and actual artistic artifacts from many past creative campaigns. The goal is to learn from the successes and failures of past efforts, and to engage the body and the mind in creative development of new projects.
The free workshop will be held from 3-5 p.m. in the Berlind Rehearsal Room at McCarter Theatre Center. Space is limited; open only to Princeton students. Please RSVP to Jane Cox at janecox@princeton.edu.
Larry Bogad is an author, performance artist, Professor of Political Performance at U.C. Davis, and co-founder of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army. He has performed and led workshops internationally, most recently in Argentina, Chile, SFMOMA, on a squatted military base in Barcelona, in Latvia, and in Cairo during the first phase of the revolution. He was “Art and Controversy” Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer on Performance and Politics at Carnegie Mellon University, and “Humanities and Political Conflict” Fellow at ASU. His projects includes a historical role-playing game called “Possible Pasts,” in addition to performances which musicalize socioeconomic data (ECONOMUSIC) and excavate the memories of historical confrontations including the Haymarket Square Riot, the Pinochet coup, and the FBI’s COINTELPRO activities. His books are Electoral Guerilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements, Tactical Performance: The Theory and Practice of Serious Play, and COINTELSHOW: A Patriot Act.
