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

Flash mob performances are perhaps less participatory than the Yippies’revolutionary action-theater due to their strict format and required simple action. But bothperformance forms have the ability to create a sense of communitas among itsperformers. Whereas the Yippies’ revolutionary action-theater events inspiredcommunitas among activists realizing they shared political commitments with thousandsof like-minded others, as at the Pentagon exorcism or Yip-In, flash mobs tend to inspire asense of communitas that is based on a euphoric feeling of uninhibited pleasure.University of Texas at Austin students participating in a pillow-fight flash mob on 6April, 2006, described the event as “fun,” and told reporters that they would absolutelydo it again (Matlock 6A). The following year, approximately 200 students knelt bowingbefore the University’s clock tower in another flash mob. Again participants interviewedby the student paper explained the pleasure the event gave them, calling it “a thrillingexperience” and “delicious” (Sanchez 8A). 83 “I was so stoked when I got my invitation”exclaimed one participant at the original Macy’s flash mob. “Just be there or be square”(Delio par. 6). Like the Yippies who developed an insider/outsider dynamic with theirtongue-in-cheek slogans, flash mobs create a similar dynamic of those on the outside—audience members—and those in the know: hipsters and others with social connections totrendsetters.83 Flash mobs are now a frequent occurrence on the University of Texas at Austin campus. I taught a theatrehistory for majors class about the phenomenon as an example of contemporary performance during theSpring 2004 semester. The next class day, the students organized a flash mob to take place during thelecture. One of my teaching assistants subsequently went on to teach about flash mob performance to anintroduction to theatre for non-majors class. Her teaching assistants have carried on that tradition as well,informing thousands of students. I believe that students enjoy experimenting with flash mobs because it is acarnivalesque and disruptive performance form that requires little preparation. Many have said that itreminds them of traditional classroom pranks such as all the students dropping their textbooks on the floorat a predetermined time to startle the teacher.222