Complicit participation : the liberal audience for theater of racial justice /
Complicit participation is the prevailing framework through which white liberal allies participate in theatrical and other institutional efforts associated with "diversity, equity, and inclusion" initiatives. This book argues that the current trend of inviting audiences to participate in a...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York, NY :
Oxford University Press,
[2024]
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| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | Complicit participation is the prevailing framework through which white liberal allies participate in theatrical and other institutional efforts associated with "diversity, equity, and inclusion" initiatives. This book argues that the current trend of inviting audiences to participate in antiracist theater can lead to intense emotional experiences and insight; but it can also assure participants that they are an enlightened group of allies who are battling racism from their seats in the theater--without the inconvenience of engaging in activism or giving up their privilege. The book addresses immersive, documentary, site-specific, experimental, street, and popular theater in chapters on Jean Genet's The Blacks, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's An Octoroon, George C. Wolfe's Shuffle Along, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, Anna Deavere Smith's Notes from the Field, and Claudia Rankine's The White Card. The author analyzes her own complicit participation and that of other audience members and theater professionals in productions of these plays and their talkbacks or other audience engagement programs. While white allyship is often a shallow, even defensive performance that enables white supremacy, this does not mean we should abandon the work to dismantle institutionalized racism and advance social justice and equity. Instead, this book argues that recognizing the contradictions and complicities at the heart of allyship, inclusion, and diversity initiatives, as revealed in contemporary theater, can lay the groundwork for full and radical participation in antiracist efforts. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (viii, 276 pages) : illustrations. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780197693421 0197693423 9780197693438 0197693431 |