Every piece of performance, whether intentionally or not, creates its own model for the relationship between the spectator and the performer. There is a long history of experimentation with that relationship, and developments are often co-incident with challenges to, or re-imaginings of, political and societal systems. Brecht’s Epic Theater reframed the relationship for his ideal audience of active citizens willing to change…

Big stuff! After the success of our article on Social Practice, Andy followed up with a big thought piece on the future of criticism, which was featured on ArtsJournal and earned kudos from…

Andy's essay on "Social Practice and Performance" has been generating a lot of interest since it went up this last week. It's the sort of thing that requires really deep knowledge of the field to be able to explore across so many different projects. Over at Howlround, Sojourn Theater's Michael Rohd was inspired to take off from it in a meaningful discussion of the differences between…

The recent “re-discovery” of social practice in visual art builds on a long tradition of socially engaged art in both visual arts and performing arts practices. There are many performing artists (theater, dance, other) currently creating within this framework. I will urge these performing artists to appropriate the language of visual art practice and situate themselves in that tradition, applying to visual arts institutions for financial support, resources and presentation opportunities. At…