Shawyer dissertation May 2008 final version - The University of ...

whose future reign will continue a cycle of self-serving political maneuvering (Garson107). MacBird! is a fiercely satiric attack on all mainstream politicians. It demonstratesthe rage and hopelessness of activists like Garson, and also the Yippies, who hatedJohnson as a representation of the political elite and also yearned for a viable politicalalternative.The most politically radical theatrical work often appeared as part of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement. It was here that hippies, student activists, and Yippiescould see performances that aligned with their politics. Off-Off-Broadway productionsoffered playwrights and other artists an opportunity to collaborate in a non-commercialenvironment: it was a place for playwrights to workshop new scripts, and a venue forinterdisciplinary explorations. Dancers, poets, visual artists, and filmmakersexperimented with improvised scripts, live action and video integration, experiential artinstallations, and audience interaction. At downtown dives like Caffe Cino or La MamaETC, patrons could see a show for a dollar or a donation. 51 At La Mama in 1965experimental playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie workshopped America Hurrah (latercalled Motel as part of a trilogy titled America Hurrah presented Off-Broadway in 1966).In this piece, actors dressed as paper dolls destroy the motel-room stage set in an anticonsumerfrenzy, accompanied by rock music and blinding lights (Bottoms, Playing 98).In 1967 the performance space mounted Rochelle Owens’s controversial play Futz,which portrays a farmer’s sexual love for his pig (Bottoms, Playing 201). The political51 Ellen Stewart of La Mama charged one dollar a week in “membership fees” and encouraged theatrepatrons to purchase food and drinks from the snack bar (Bottoms, Playing 95). The “ETC” of La MamaETC stood for both “experimental theatre club” and “etcetera,” meaning Ellen Stewart and friends (91).116