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

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Radical Street Theatre and the Yippie Legacy:A Performance History of the Youth International Party, 1967-1968Publication No. ____________Susanne Elizabeth Shawyer, Ph.D.The University of Texas at Austin, 2008Supervisor: Jill DolanIn 1967 and 1968, members of the Youth International Party, also known asYippies, created several mass street demonstrations to protest President Lyndon BainesJohnson’s handling of the United States’ military involvement in the war in Vietnam. TheYippies were a loose network of hippies, anti-war activists, and left-wing radicalscommitted to cultural and political change. This dissertation investigates how the Yippiesused avant-garde theories of theatre and performance in their year of demonstratingagainst the Johnson administration. The Yippies receive little attention in most historiesof American performance, and theatre remains on the margins of political and socialhistories of the 1960s; therefore this dissertation places performance and politicalarchives side by side to create a new historical narrative of the Yippies and performance.The Yippies created their own networked participatory street performance formby drawing on the political philosophy of the New Left student movement, thevi
organizational strategies of the anti-war movement, and the countercultural values of thehippies. They modified this performance form, which they termed “revolutionary actiontheater,”with performance theories drawn from New York’s avant-garde art world, theconcept of guerrilla theatre outlined by R. G. Davis of the San Francisco Mime Troupe,and the notion of Theater of Cruelty created by Antonin Artaud. Using performancetheory and cultural history as primary methodologies, this project traces the Yippies’adoption of revolutionary action-theater with three examples: the 1967 “March on thePentagon” where future Yippie leaders performed an exorcism ritual at the Pentagon; the1968 “Grand Central Station Yip-In” event that advertised for the Yippie movement; andthe 1968 “Festival of Life” at the National Democratic Convention in Chicago where theYippies nominated a pig as presidential candidate. The final chapter on the recentphenomenon of flash mobs argues that the Yippies’ legacy lives on in this participatorystreet performance form, and suggests that revolutionary action-theater can still serve as amodel for political action.vii
Page 1 and 2: CopyrightbySusanne Elizabeth Shawye
Page 3 and 4: Radical Street Theatre and the Yipp
Page 5: Kokai, Olivia Whitmer O’Hare, Tam
Page 9 and 10: IntroductionThe Chicago Poster:Cont
Page 12: adical hipsters, or counterculture
Page 20: linguistic theory, the field of per
Page 23 and 24: The language of performance thus al
Page 25 and 26: protest from theatre. 8 Mass demons
Page 27 and 28: performative has the potential to e
Page 29 and 30: evolution using methodological and
Page 31 and 32: Realist, suddenly noticed that when
Page 33 and 34: Revolution for the Hell of It is a
Page 35 and 36: The Yippies’ politics are clear i
Page 37 and 38: 2). They embraced a romantic notion
Page 39 and 40: made up of many separate organizati
Page 41 and 42: and a free store on the Lower East
Page 43 and 44: When they formed the Youth Internat
Page 45 and 46: Most of the dozen core Yippies were
Page 47 and 48: acknowledgment that her business sk
Page 49 and 50: The claim of millions of Yippies wa
Page 51 and 52: Man to tease out the New Left’s n
Page 53 and 54: eports from the popular press, test
Page 55 and 56: Image of Yippie Chicago poster.47
Page 57 and 58:
surround the Pentagon are a long wa
Page 59 and 60:
the Conference for New Politics in
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Washington was no stranger to mass
Page 63 and 64:
uilding in acts of civil disobedien
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had a history of civil disobedience
Page 67 and 68:
the crowd into affinity groups by m
Page 69 and 70:
Like Abbie Hoffman, Rubin was aware
Page 71 and 72:
Krishna” and “Om” to their re
Page 73 and 74:
Pentagon began its work for the wee
Page 75 and 76:
A respectable horde of respectable
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that time was still expected to see
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It didn’t matter if there was dis
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democratic political-economic and c
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social activist Malcolm X, Communis
Page 85 and 86:
The aesthetic of the New Left now t
Page 87 and 88:
straight-laced emphasis on communit
Page 89 and 90:
Unlike the young student politician
Page 91 and 92:
on the improvised actions of variou
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society” by changing, not ignorin
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similar to the very same ones used
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scenery falls. The Yippies loved th
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unrest by the lower ranks of societ
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Don’t rely on words. Words are th
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writing to President Johnson from V
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wasn’t just their situation that
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freshly-shorn young men in army uni
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I also argue that blurring of life
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Armed with a budget of just $15.00
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ounced through the air above the cr
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they ran into again in Chicago when
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Yip-In moved into an unexpected sec
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Yippies had been publishing manifes
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experimental works. Like other New
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not Broadway, was the venue for pla
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adicalism of Off-Off-Broadway conte
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theater, and including it on their
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environment that pays special atten
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meaning or appreciate the aesthetic
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Since Happenings emerged from New Y
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that contrasted visual peaceful pro
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prominence of ordinary actions and
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The costumes of the Yip-In particip
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ecruit, several blocks from the hip
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free stores, or crash pads. In 1969
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The hippies and Yippies also used m
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from their weekday Establishment re
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perform the power of authority and
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commuters the actions and dress tha
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emotion and hope, like the “utopi
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Chapter ThreeThe Festival of Life:
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Double (1938). The Yippies used the
Page 159 and 160:
anti-war views, and movement leader
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Republican candidate Richard Nixon;
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death, it seemed like Humphrey was
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American politicians. We’ll infil
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named themselves the Youth Internat
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if necessary, Mobe was unable to ge
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ut the Yippies’ signs supported a
Page 173 and 174:
craze, offering a special section o
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efforts to bring performances to th
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commentary in the East Village Othe
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which Hoffman designated as ‘medi
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already in Chicago, and prepared to
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Even though many of the demonstrato
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with a fire-cracker throwing crowd
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Hilton to interview passing delegat
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political positions, merged to form
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protest against the order, rules, a
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experience the performance event wi
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The Battle of Michigan Avenue was a
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“It would take an inspired Artaud
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The letters in the Johnson Library
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watching” (Box 66). Korean War ve
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members who felt that the Yippies g
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Dismayed by his lack of action abou
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night of the Battle of Michigan Ave
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Chapter FourFlash Mobs: The Yippie
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that is, they were political only t
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as their primary political and cult
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1969, “Four Days of Rage” campa
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The Festival of Life and the ensuin
Page 219 and 220:
The Yippies’ revolutionary action
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Glasgow, Rome, Vienna, Berlin, Sydn
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and social conventions: flash mobs
Page 225 and 226:
social behaviors, and the technolog
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organized by anyone with access to
Page 229 and 230:
advantage of the dramaturgy of prot
Page 231 and 232:
Yet the insider/outsider dynamic of
Page 233 and 234:
List of AbbreviationsCOREFBIHUACLBJ
Page 235 and 236:
Letter, Roger Light to the Presiden
Page 237 and 238:
Telegram, Marjorie Satthoff to the
Page 239 and 240:
Brown, Joe David, ed. The Hippies.
Page 241 and 242:
Editorial. Chicago Tribune. 29 Aug.
Page 243 and 244:
Higgins, Dick. “The Origin of the
Page 245 and 246:
Karastamatis, John. “Don’t Star
Page 247 and 248:
McMillian, John. “Garbage Guerril
Page 249 and 250:
Rosenberg, Bernard. “Chicago: Blo
Page 251 and 252:
Stewart, M. J. F. and Davis, Lisa.
Page 253:
VITASusanne Elizabeth Shawyer was b
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