This article traces the work of a cross-listed Theatre and Black Studies performance course at a US university that had recently experienced campus protests concerning anti-black racism. The course culminated in an admissions-style walking tour that critically analysed the university environment by juxtaposing dominant institutional narratives with counter accounts performed by a multi-ethnic ensemble of students. The article begins by contextualizing the university's history of anti-black racism and then describes the curriculum created for the class and the broader Campus Counter Tour performance. To conclude, it discusses the assets embedded in the Counter Tour project (accessibility, coalition building, and participation in a movement), which could be valuable for applied theatre practitioners interested in using walking tours to address institutional narratives bound up in racism or colonialism more broadly.
Casting a Movement brings together US-based actors, directors, educators, playwrights, and scholars to explore the cultural politics of casting.D r a w i n go nt h en o t i o no fa"welcome table"-a space where artists of all backgrounds can come together as equals to create theater-the book'sc o ntributors discuss casting practices as they relate to varying communities and contexts, including Middle Eastern American theater, disability culture, multilingual performance, Native American theater, color-conscious and culturally conscious casting, and casting as a means to dismantle stereotypes. Syler and Banks suggest that casting is a way to invite more people to the table so that the full breadth of US identities can be reflected onstage, and that casting is inherently a political act; because an actor's embodied presence both communicates a dramatic narrative and evokes cultural assumptions associated with appearance, skin color, gender, sexuality, and ability, casting choices are never neutral. By bringing together a variety of artistic perspectives to discuss common goals and particular concerns related to casting, this volume features the insights and experiences of a broad range of practitioners and experts across the field.As a resource-driven text suitable for both practitioners and academics, Casting a Movement seeks to frame and mobilize a social movement focused on casting, access, and representation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.