1. Descriptive: What is the performance/event subject matter? What are the main points raised by the performance/event? What expectations did you bring to the performance/event? Who are the members of the community that the work is addressed to? What was the performance space like? Can you describe the events production values? The makeup of the audience (if applicable)? The atmosphere…?
2. Analytical: How successful was the performance/event/parade in conveying the material and/or subject matter to the viewer? What worked or engaged you? What did not…?
3. Reflective: How did the actual viewing relate to your personal experience, if any, on the subject matter? Why was the performance/event successful or failed at communicating the main ideas to you? In which ways is this work relevant to you and/or the community that it is intended to…?
4. Critical You must engage course material: What aspects of the course work, class discussions, and readings, including foundational readings and plays, can you relate to this event/experience?
Base your essays answers on two out of these three guiding prompts.
1. Following the work of Richard Schechner, address the differences between is / as and make believe / make belief performance. In your own words, discuss Schechners concepts elaborating on examples from at least one community-based performance from paper 1 (i.e. Carnaval, Pride, Parol, etc.); one play of your choice discussed in class (i.e. Marisol, Dutchman, Madame Ho, etc.); and one non-artistic event from public life that attracted media attention during the semester (i.e. COVID-related, trials that gained national attention, treatment of people seeking refuge, etc.). In all cases determine and include in your analysis who are the actors involved, and what is/was being performed.
2. Cherrie Moraga wrote Heroes & Saints inspired by the struggle of working families in the Central Valley, engaging themes such as basic human rights and corporate power, the toxicity of pesticides and AIDS, and the extreme measures needed for an invisible community to call attention to their plight. Amiri Baraka wrote Dutchman based on the intersection of ancient myths and contemporary race relations against an oppressive social background, addressing the disconnection between the best promises of American democracy and its factual violent reality. Compare both works and bring about themes relating to the areas of gender, sexuality, and racial/ethnic identity. How do these playwrights address the issue of resistance? In which ways does their art provide a language for topics most difficult to engage otherwise? Discuss the way(s) both endings work: why are they both open and why do both break away from the happy ending promised by the American Dream?Base your points on specific scenes and specific foundational course readings (Schechner, Taylor, Brecht, Boal).
3. Philip Kan-Gotanda wrote After The War Blues inspired by his own family and communitys struggle during and after WWII. He engages themes relating to the culture of bigotry, racism and shaming tyrannizing Americans of Japanese ancestry as well as others such as African Americans and those marginalized due to gender and class oppression. Luis Valdez wrote Zoot Suit based on the historical Zoot Suit Riots calling attention to the home front violence during WWII for Chicanxs who were wrestling with xenophobia and racism while at the same time trying to define their own way of being American. Compare both works and bring about themes relating to the idea of home and belonging. How does each set of characters struggle with these issues in their own way? In which ways do self hate and calibanization appear? Discuss the way(s) both plays deal with our present time through the lens of stories set decades before in the context of WWII. Base your points onspecific scenes.
