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

Living Theatre takes its audience on a political and spiritual journey of consciousnessraising.After eight ritual actions intended to open audience members to revolutionaryconsciousness, the actors lead the audience to the street outside the performance space,encouraging them to go forth and begin revolutionary action. But there the actors’performance ended, and the audience was left to begin the revolution on their own.Disillusioned by a performance that asked revolutionary commitment of its audience butnot of its performers, Rubin saw another option—theatre in the streets that trulydemanded revolutionary commitment:Revolution-in-the-auditorium is a contradiction. We get pissed when ourrevolutionary energy is wasted with a play that is defined by walls and exitdoors, by starting and ending times, by ticket prices.The only role of theater is to take people out of the auditorium and into thestreets. The role of the revolutionary theater group is to make revolution.(133)He wasn’t satisfied by revolutionary art that remained bound within the framework of aperformance or artistic event. Instead, Rubin imagined a blurring of the boundariesbetween life and art, using the already performative lifestyle of the Yippies and hippies todemand an audience in public spaces.For Rubin, the Yippies were the guerrillas Davis imagined. Already in costumewith their long hair, beaded necklaces, headbands, and other hippie paraphernalia, theYippies could emerge from their haunts in the East Village and Berkeley to take centerstage in other arenas: the Mall in Washington, the Convention in Chicago. In a168