Performance Activism is an emerging international movement of individuals and organizations that practice and promote play and performance because of their power to develop people and communities. It is simultaneously a new approach to performance and a new kind of social activism.
Learn more at the East Side Institute website.
This is the first book length study of performance activism. While Performance Studies recognizes the universality of human performance in daily life, what is specifically under investigation here is performance as an activity intentionally entered into as a means of engaging social issues and conflicts, that is, as an ensemble activity by which we re-construct/transform social reality.
Performance Activism: Precursors and Contemporary Pioneers provides a global overview of the growing interface of performance with education, therapy, conflict resolution, civic engagement, community development and social justice activism. It combines an historical study of the processes by which, over the course of the 20th Century, performance has been loosened from the institutional constraints of the theatre with a mosaic-like overview of the diverse work/play of contemporary performance activists around the world.
Performance Activism will be of interest to theatre and cultural historians, performance practitioners and researchers, psychologists and sociologists, educators and youth workers, community organizers and political activists.
In 2025, Performance Activism was translated into Japanese by East Side Institute Associate, Professor Yuji Moro, and is now available via Shinyosha Press.
