Faculty: Dr. William Yalowitz, byalowitz@dca.net

Subject/Discipline: Theater Arts
School: University of Pennsylvania
Project Area: 

Spring 1999

Class Meeting Times: Seminar: Mondays, 2-5 (Other meetings as described below)
Office Hours: Arrange with instructor
Contact Information: phone: 438-7817

Course Description and Goals

The course combines work in Performance Studies theory with the application of teaqching, directing, and design skills in the production of an inter-generational community performance, at a community site inscribed with local signifcance.  Community performance brings theater artists together with people of a community of location, spirit, or tradition, to tell the stories collected in oral history interviews, animating local architecture and urban landscapes with movement, stories, and sound, and creating collective historical fiction based on local issues and mythologies, students will help to create a community performance as a means for West Philadelphia to celebrate their histories and to show their struggles - in short, to create public discourse through preformance-making.

In this course, students will learn the nuts and bolts of creating a community performance project, hands-on.  Working with the (ex-) residents of the Black Bottom, a West Philadelphia neighborhood which was razed and displaced by university-driven 'urban renewal' in the 1950s and 60s, along with students from University City High School, our group from Theater 250 will help to conduct research on local issues and local history.  We will conduct oral history interviews with community 'storytellers,' working in concert with UCHS students to collect stories and images.  These stories then become source material for a theater production, which we will create along with UCHS students and people from the Black Bottom.

In addition to seminar meetings, students will join one of the following Production Committees, which will each hold weekly meetings, TBA:

• University City High School, probably Wed/Fri 12:20-1:50
• Design & Tech
• Oral History Coordination and Transcription
• Scripting
• History Curriculum and Publicity

Course policies

Attendance - Attendance at all semnar meetings and production committee meetings is, of course, mandatory.  This course is a combination of academic and applied work.  You and your classmates will need to count on one another; in addition, work with people from the community and from UCHS demands utter reliability.  Any anticipated difficulties with attendance should be discussed with instructor before they occur.

Assignments

Process Journal: Weekly entries: a log of you rpersonal and artistic journey through the course and project.  Your journal will be collected at mid-semester (due Friday, March 6) and again at the end of the semester (to be handed in with the final paper on April 27).

Final Paper: due Monday, April 27

Analyze and reflect on our performance process this semester and your role in it.  As points of reference, use your own journal entries on the project in relation to
(1) the performance theory of Schechner, Turner, Kershaw, Yalowitz, Kuftinec, or Geer
[choose a motif - transaction, efficacy, ritual-theater spectrum, intercultural dynamics, rhetorical and authenticating conventions]

 (2) one example of a community performance from the reading list, or one you select yourself

Pay attention to some of the following in your discussion: the role of the artist, your personal learnings regarding race, class, place, and identity, and the interfacing of theater/community activism/education.

Weekly Schedule

Readings:

Jan 18: Community Performance: Context and Background

• Yalowitz, William.  Community Performance, Historical Fictions...
• Goldbard, Arlene.  Postscript to the Past: Notes Toward a History of Community Arts
• Geer, Richard Owen.  Of the People, by the People and For the People...
• Simpson, Pearl.  The Black Bottom Picnic.  Unpublished manuscript.

• Kuftinec, Sonja.  In Search of America in Your Own Backyard: Cornerstone Theater and Transactions of Community.
• Burnham, Linda Frye.  Artists Tell History.
• Burnham, Linda Frye.  The Cutting Edge is Enormous.
• Gee, Marie.  Yes in My Front Yard: Community Participation and the Public Art Process.
• Schwarzman, Mat.  Drawing the Line at Place: The Environmental Justice Project.
• Hammer, Kate.  John O'Neal, Actor and Activist: The Praxis of Storytelling.
• Porterfied, Donna.  Arts Presenting and the Celebration of a Community's Culture.
• Schechner, Richard.  An Intercultural Primer.
• Leonard, Bob.  Negotiations: Learning Hard Lessons.

• Yalowitz, William.  Community Performance, Historical Fictions, and Interculturlal Transactions: Joshua's Wall in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia; pp. 31-48.
• Geer, Richard Owen.  Swamp Gravy.
• Goler, Veta.  Living With the Doors Open: An Interview with Blondell Cummings
• Pottenger, Marty.  Making City Water Tunnel #3.
• Geer, Richard.  Untitled article on Swamp Gravy and community performance.
• Warner, David.  Toys in he Attic.
• Killkelly, Ann.  We're All at the Table In the Working Class Kitchen.
• Rogoff, Tamar.  Writings about the Ivye Project.

• Geer, Richard. (in press).  Untitled article on Swamp Gravy and community performance.
• Kershaw, Baz. (1992).  The Politics of Performance: Radical Theater as Cultural Intervention.
• Schechner, Richard. (1988). Performance Theory.
• Turner, Victor. (1982). From Ritual to Theater: The Human Seriousness of Play.

PROJECT SCHEDULE: Community Performance in West Philadelphia
 
 

Jan.	seminar	community	UCHS	production
11	Community Performance: Context and Background introduction of current project  Introduction and community	calls to storytellers	curriculum meetings with Tom Esposito	initiaal meetings with tech staff
18	Artists and Communities: Issues of Cultural Transaction Identity and community movement/theater workshop - UCHS prep	oral history interviewing	curriculum meetings with Tom Esposito theater workshop planning	initial meetings with tech staff
25	Community Performance models and methods Committee meetings movement/theater workshop - UCHS prep	oral history interviewing transcribing  identifying performers	Black Bottom historical research	drafting of script themes identify site indentify musicians
Feb.
1	Committee meetings UCHS teaching planning	oral history interviewing transcribing identifying performers	movement/theater workshop Black Bottom historical research	drafting of script themes
8	Committee meetings       Black Bottom Cabaret:	oral history interviewing transcribing identifying performers   Sat. Feb. 14, 10pm-3am	movement/theater workshop oral history interviewing at Lancaster Hall,	drafting of script themes costume/set preliminaries   5151 Warren Street. (52nd and Media)
15	Committee meetings	oral history interviewing transcribing indentify preformers	movement/theater workshop oral hisotry interviewing	drafting of script themes costume/set preliminaries
22	Committee meetings workshop planning	theater workshop	movement/theater workshop oral history interviewing	scripting design work begin publicity
Mar.
1	Committee meetings workshop planning Journals due, March 6	intergenerational theater workshop	intergenerational theater workshop	scripting design work publicity
8	Spring Break	intergenerational theater workshop	intergenerational theater workshop	finish scripting design work publicity
15	Committee meetings workshop planning	intergenerational theater workshop	intergenerational theater workshop	design work
23	Committee meetings rehearsal planning	Rehearsals	Rehearsals	design work
29	Committee meetings rehearsal planning	Rehearsals	Rehearsals	set/costume construction
Apr.
5	rehearsal planning	rehearsals	rehearsals (Spring Break)	publicity
12	rehearsal planning          -----------------------	Tech & dress rehearsals     perform,	Tech & dress rehearsals     April 18, 19	load in tech dress    -----------------------
19	Evaluation   Final Papers and journals, due April 27	Evaluation	Evaluation	Evaluation

Readings

Burnham, Linda Frye.  (1992). Artists Tell History. High Performance, Winter, 1992.

Burnham, Linda Frye.  (1994). The Cutting Edge is Enormous. High Performance, Summer, 1994.

Gee, Marie.  (1995) Yes in My Front Yard: Community Participation and the Public Art Process.  High Performance, Spring/Summer, 1995. 

Geer, Richard.  (in press) =. Untitled article on Swamp Gravy and community performance.

Geer, Richard Owen.  (1993). Swamp Gravy. High Performance, Fall, 1993.

Goldbard, Arlene.  (1993). Postscript to the Past: Notes Toward a History of Community Arts.  High Performance, Fall, 1993.

Goler, Veta.  (1995). Living With the Doors Open: An Interview with Blondell Cummings.  High Performance, Spring/Summer 1995.

Hammer, Kate.  (1992).  John O'Neal, Actor and Activist: The Praxis of Storytelling.  The Drama Review, 36(4), 13-27.

Kershaw, Baz. (1992).  The Politics of Performance: Radical Theater as Cultural Intervention.  New York: Routledge.

Killkelly, Ann.  (1993). We're All at the Table In the Working Class Kitchen.  High Performance, Winter, 1993.

Kuftinec, Sonja.  (1995).  In Search of America in Your Own Backyard: Cornerstone Theater and Transactions of Community.  Unpublished manuscript.  Stanford University Drama Department.

Leonard, Bob.  (1993).  Negotiations: Learning Hard Lessons. High Performance, Winter, 1993.

Porterfied, Donna.  (1993).  Arts Presenting and the Celebration of a Community's Culture.  High Performance, Winter, 1993.

Pottenger, Marty.  (1997).  Making City Water Tunnel #3. High Performance, Spring, 1997.

Rogoff, Tamar.  Writings about the Ivye Project.

Schechner, Richard. (1988). Performance Theory, revised and expanded edition, New York: Routledge.

Schechner, Richard.  (1991).  An Intercultural Primer. American Theater, October, 1991.

Schwarzman, Mat.  (1996).  Drawing the Line at Place: The Environmental Justice Project. High Performance, Summer, 1996.

Simpson, Pearl.  (1997).  The Black Bottom Picnic.  Unpublished manuscript.

Turner, Victor. (1982). From Ritual to Theater: The Human Seriousness of Play.  New York: PAJ.

Warner, David.  (1995).  Toys in he Attic.  Philadelphia City Paper, March 17-24, 1995.

Yalowitz, William.  Community Performance, Historical Fictions, and Interculturlal Transactions: Joshua's Wall in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia.  Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Temple University.