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The theme of the last PTW, held in 2010 and attended by over 500 peo­ple from dozens of coun­tries, was, “Can Per­for­mance Change the World?” The depth of the chal­lenges fac­ing human­ity two short years later have led the con­ven­ers of Per­form­ing the World to recast the ques­tion for the 2012 con­fer­ence as, “Can Per­for­mance Save the World?”

Dead­locked gov­ern­ments, pro­tracted wars, dys­func­tional edu­ca­tion sys­tems, and a deep­en­ing global eco­nomic cri­sis with no appar­ent solu­tion have become the norm. At the same time, the activ­ity of per­for­mance (and play­ing and pre­tend­ing and cre­at­ing…), as an alter­na­tive to the cog­ni­tive– and/or faith-based “solu­tions” of tra­di­tional ide­ol­ogy, con­tin­ues to spread both at the grass­roots and in the uni­ver­sity, with the non-ideological, impro­visatory move­ments strug­gling to embody this trend.

Per­form­ing the World 2012 will be a marathon “per­for­mance of con­ver­sa­tion” with peo­ple from all over the world — schol­ars and researchers; edu­ca­tors, ther­a­pists, social work­ers, youth work­ers; doc­tors and other health work­ers; the­atre, applied the­atre and other per­for­mance artists; social activists and com­mu­nity orga­niz­ers; busi­ness lead­ers and phil­an­thropists; film, video and media cre­atives; and others.

PTW will be held at the All Stars Project’s per­for­mance and devel­op­ment cen­ter on 42nd Street in New York City. To register