Performing Communities: Grassroots Ensemble Theaters Deeply Rooted in Eight U.S. Communities

Ensemble theater is one of the vibrant, meaningful American performance forms today. It's more than art- it's a social movement. Ensemble theater is one of the hottest, most engaging American performance forms today. It's more than art- it's a movement. Performing Communities is an inquiry into a genre of theater that arises from and empowers the grassroots. The book profiles established ensemble groups from inner-city Los Angeles, small-town northern California, African-American South, multicultural southern Texas, low-income central Appalachia, economically struggling South Bronx New York, and cross-continental Native America. This compendium of critical writing about the role these theaters play in building community shows how these artist groups are forged by working in and with their communities over time. Ensemble theater is discovered to be neither alternative nor marginalized, but vanguard, a natural evolution of the movement that propelled regional theater "away from the commercial restraints of New York and toward a theater expressive of the rich diversity of American culture." It is theater that is politically and emotionally charged. It can be cathartic, healing, and has a proven ability to effect social change. The book Performing Communities is a project of the Community Arts Network. It has been created from interviews, analytical essays, and play excerpts from the "Grassroots Theater Ensemble Research Project," an inquiry into American ensemble theaters that have been working in communities for 10 to 35 years. Although originating from a scholarly report, the language has been edited for a popular audience and offers an intimate glimpse into each local ensemble community. The book will appeal to followers of contemporary and popular theater, social change activists, community building specialists, and a public curious about cultural development in the United States.

About the Author :
Robert H. Leonard is a professor in the Department of Theatre Arts at Virginia Tech where he directs the master of fine arts program in directing and public dialogue. Ann Kilkelly is a professor of performance studies in the Department of Theatre Arts and in the Women's Studies Program in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Tech. Jan Cohen-Cruz is a former professor of drama at NYU and founder of the department's applied theater minor. As a past director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life, she co-founded its journal, Public. Her numerous books include Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance, 1965–2020, by Those Who Lived It, Local Acts, Engaging Performance, Remapping Performance, and two co-edited texts on Augusto Boal. Cohen-Cruz was director of field research for A Blade of Grass and an ATHE awardee for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement. She currently teaches at Touchstone Theatre/Moravian University. Linda Frye Burnham is a writer of national reputation on a variety of subjects, with special emphasis in artists working in community, education and activism. She has also written extensively on performance art and feminism and multiculturalism in the arts.

Review :
""If you care about theater in America - any kind of theater, really, whether it's slick commercial stuff or the funky avant-garde or street-theater activism - you should get to know the remarkable folks in this book. They're a special breed."" - Jim O'Quinn (editor, American Theatre magazine, New York) ""With the contemporary world ablaze in "culture wars" along comes a book describing the work and philosophy of theater artists whose artistic excellence is sharpened by their relationship with the life of communities. Making sure that theater is meaningful, important, and useful - while still maintaining high standards for artistry and stagecraft - these artists make a clear case for the power of artmaking in the context of local lives and stories."" - Liz Lerman, choreographer (Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Silver Spring, Maryland) ""Community-based arts provide the forum for examining community values, organizing community resources and empowering the spirit of the community. In Performing Communities, we see the common thread - art is community and communities are transformed by their art."" - Ysaye Barnwell (Sweet Honey in the Rock, Washington DC) ""One of the most important things about art is that it's constantly holding people's aspirations in front of them. And in that sense, John Malpede's work [Los Angeles Poverty Department] is profoundly transformative because it's inviting both the performers and the audience to reach towards something that they thought was not achievable and that requires enormous courage and personal commitment to achieve. You're watching performers in the process of raising the bar in their own lives and that asks the audience to make the same gesture."" - Peter Sellars (director)