1st Edition
Into Abolitionist Theatre A Guidebook for Liberatory Theatre-making
Seeking to transform community-based theatre-making, this book explores the transformative potential of abolitionist theatre, as theatre artists and teachers collaborate with marginalized communities to challenge systems of oppression and inspire profound societal change.
Focusing on the idea of bringing people together to demand collective care and community-led practice, this collection works to define theatre’s role in the goals of abolition. Abolitionist theatre-making is a theatre that is connected to the practice of decolonization, intersectional feminism, climate justice, social justice, and liberation struggles. Exploring these ideas and offering a direct exploration of the questions that theatre artists and teachers should ask themselves when evaluating the abolitionist impact of their work, the volume provides accessible and practical tools for theatre-makers with perspectives from working practitioners throughout. Through real-life stories and experiences shared by theatre practitioners, the book provides a rich and diverse tapestry of examples that highlight the ways in which community-based theatre can contribute to transformational change. Readers will benefit from practical frameworks, thought-provoking perspectives, and thoughtfully crafted insights that inspire them to reimagine their own theatre practices and empower them to create theatre that challenges and dismantles oppressive systems while uplifting marginalized voices.
Ideal for undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in utilizing theatre-making for social change, this book offers new and practical insights into how the path to abolition might be laid and theatre’s key role in it. This book will also be of great interest to theatre artists and activist practitioners who are involved in community-based theatre projects with marginalized populations.
Introduction
Rivka Eckert
SECTION I: Prison Industrial Complex/Capitalism
1. Interlude 1
2. Holding Ourselves Accountable and Holding Out for the Horizon: Facilitating the Arts in Prisons
Julie Rada
3.Redefining Stereotypes: Abolitionist Theatre and Correctional Officers
Rivka Eckert
4. Staging Student Resistance: A Case Study in Campus Abolitionist Theatre
Misty Saribal
5. Amplifying Undocumented Stories: On Resisting the “Crimmigration” Regime at Albany Park Theater Project
Devika Ranjan
6. Reflections on Section I
SECTION II: No Reforms
7. Interlude 2
8. Radical Values in Reflection: Navigating Arts and Abolition with Incarcerated Youth
Julie Rada and Maya Osterman-Van Grack
9. Abolition in Prisons and Teacher Education through Theatre of the Oppressed: A Conversation between Practitioners and Participants
Rachael Rhoades and Lori Pitts
10. Disrupting Hierarchies: Theatre for Social Change as Rehearsal for Liberation in Secondary Education
Aubrey Helene Neumann
11. Reflection on Section II
Section III: Building Community
12. Interlude 3
13. The Takers’ Tower Will Fall: Epic Lessons in Co-Creation
Mariana Green and Alyssa Vera Ramos
14. Impact: A Conversation among Katherine Nigh, Robert Villanueva, and Brandon de Santiago
Katherine Nigh
15. Creating a Supernova
Elizabeth Hawes
16. The Power of Difference: Solidarity on the Path
Sarah K. Chalmers
17. Reflections on Section III
Section IV: Interconnection/Future Dreaming
18. Interlude 4
19. Spiritual Gifts for Changing Times/Paradigms
Tyrell Blacquemoss
20. Gaining Freedom and Healing Through Theatre
Lynn Baker-Nauman, MA, LMFT, RDT and Spoon Jackson
21. A Play Is a Vehicle to Incite: An Interview with Playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Nicholas Fesette
22. A Queer Jail-Time: Disclosure Art and Transformative Justice in Los Angeles Men’s Central Jail
Joey Martinez
23. Reflection on Section IV
Biography
Rivka Eckert is an Assistant Professor in the Theatre and Dance Department at SUNY Potsdam, USA. Eckert is a community cultural development theatre-maker using performing arts as a means of cross-cultural communication. She has taught Theatre and English in prisons, high schools, and middle schools and worked with the Peace Corps in Samoa and Liberia.
