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

protest from theatre. 8 Mass demonstrations challenge the modern Western dramaticmodel—a beginning that establishes a conflict, a middle of rising action, and adenouement—because of their unpredictable nature and reliance on improvisation. Thereis not always a clear beginning or end when thousands gather for a demonstration.Kershaw posits a “dramaturgy of protest” instead, one based on “multiplicity,discontinuity, abrupt eruptions of dramatic intensity, sudden shifts and changes indirection, tempo, or focus” (99). The Yippies’ mass protests demonstrate these elementsof Kershaw’s dramaturgy of protest: the sudden shift of the Grand Central Station Yip-Infrom spring carnival to riot is one example of an unexpected shift in focus; their Pentagonexorcism ceremony was just one of multiple actions taking place at the same time at theMarch on the Pentagon.Like many political demonstrations, the goal of the Yippies’ street performanceform was to effect change. Although persuasion is the objective of most performances,the question of efficacy vexes many a theatre scholar. The inherently ephemeral nature oflive performance makes judging real effects difficult. A post-performance audiencesurvey can help determine whether a performance changed hearts and minds, but noneexist for the Yippies’ exuberant public displays. However letters and telegrams sent toPresident Johnson’s White House in response to the Yippie demonstrations do exist, andin Chapters One and Three I use these to explore the persuasive effects of the March onthe Pentagon and the Festival of Life. David A. Schlossman, author of Actors andActivists: Politics, Performance, and Exchange Among Social Worlds (2002), argues that8 Kershaw does concede that political demonstrations can be considered somewhat Aristotelean because oftheir cathartic work as a vent for social pressures (107).17