2nd Edition

Community Performance An Introduction

By Petra Kuppers Copyright 2019
    280 Pages 92 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    280 Pages 92 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Community Performance: An Introduction is a comprehensive and accessible practice-based primer for students and practitioners of community arts, dance, and theatre, offering reflection on the ethical issues inherent to the field. It is both a classroom-friendly textbook and a handbook for the practitioner, perfectly answering the needs of a field where teaching is orientated around practice.

    Offering a toolkit for students interested in running community arts groups or community performance events, this book includes:

    • international case studies and first-person stories by practitioners and participants
    • sample exercises, both practical and reflective
    • study questions
    • excerpts of illustrative material from theorists and practitioners

    This second edition has been completely revised with over 25% new content to bring the book up to date with developments in both society and performance, including the rise of social media, updates in the contexts of social justice, new standards and norms in social practice, and the changing faces of funding, evaluation, and professional development.

    The book can be used as a standalone text or together with its companion volume, Community Performance: A Reader, to provide an excellent introduction to the field of community arts practice.

    List of Illustrations  Preface to Second Edition  1. Introduction  2. Remembering histories  3. Setting up and running a group  4. Finding motivations: images, sounds, tastes, touches  5. Finding inspirations: stories, legends, myths  6. Documentation, evaluation, reporting  7. Building sustainability  Epilogue  References Index

    Biography

    Petra Kuppers is an internationally active disability culture activist, a community performance artist, Artistic Director of The Olimpias performance research collective, and a Professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She also teaches on the low-residency MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College.

    "This is an excellently structured and written book which clearly gives a context for community performance whilst invigorating this theory and history with illustrations of practice which are engaging and informing. The book allows the reader to feel guided as they reflect on their own work or imagine and plan work for the future. It covers a vast amount of ground, connects distinct areas of practice, doesn’t assume a particular knowledge and places faith in the reader to develop their own knowledge through the practice of the exercises outlined in the book. It is a very useful, engaging book that could be returned to time and again, as people reflect and develop their own practice."

    -  Caoimhe McAvinchey, Queen Mary University of London