54.2.Schechner HAPPENING

8/2/2019 54.2.Schechner HAPPENING

1/7

"There's Something Happenin' Here

Richard Schechner

TDR: The Drama Review, Volume 54, Number 2, Summer 2010

(T 206), pp. 12-17 (Article)

Published by The MIT Press

For additional information about this article

Access Provided by Education Research Institute at 01/20/11 11:44AM GMT

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.html
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.html


2/7

Comment

12

Commen

t

TDR: The Drama Review 54:2 (T206) Summer 2010. 2010

New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Theres SomethingHappenin Here...

Richard Schechner

what it is aint exactly clear. Thus sang Buffalo Springeld in 1969. A world ago, a differentepoch, no connection to now. If so, then why all the reenactments of classic works from thelate 1950s and 1960s? Why did performance studies scholar Andr Lepecki agree in 2008 torestage for a Munich exhibit of Allan Kaprows work the worlds very rst Happening, the 195918 Happenings in 6 Parts? Also in 2008, why did French choreographer Anne Collod replayAnna Halprins 1965 Parades and Changesin Paris for the Festival dAutomne in collaborationwith the Centre Pompidou? And in 2009, why did the Rude Mechanicals of Austin, Texas,replicate exactly The Performance Groups 1968 Dionysus in 69 using Brian de Palmas 1969lm as their text? For several years, the Living Theatre has remounted some of their classic

works, including in 2007 Kenneth H. Browns The Brigand the group-devisedMysteries andSmaller Pieces.1 Or take the Brooklyn-based Darmstadt: Classics of the Avant Garde music serieswhere music/performance (often not scores, but actual physical stagings) from the 1950s to1970s are enacted including, for the 2009 second annual Essential Repertoire Festival, works byMeredith Monk, Peter Zummo, Phil Niblock . . . and others. I realize that a number of works inthe Essential Repertoire festival are not strictly reconstructions or reenactments. But I believethe impulse driving the festival is to validate the paradoxical idea of a repertory of avantgardepieces reaching back decades. After Paris, Parades and Changes, Replays(Collods retitling)graced the 2009 Performa festival in New York and went on tour to other venues. Dionysus in 69will also probably tour. These are not reinterpretations or new versions. They are as close to theoriginals as can be.2

A contradiction in terms, avantgarde and classics?

Of course, reinterpreting the dramatic texts of the great writers is a mainstay of orthodoxtheatre. How many Chekhovs, Ibsens, Brechts, Williamses, Mamets, Kanes, Churchills,Sophocleses, and Shakespeares have you seen? Even deconstructing the dramas of the mastersis old-hat, a mainstay of the Wooster Group and its acolytes. But whats going on now isdifferent. Artists stage performance texts not dramatic texts. They do not reinterpret, theyreplicate. The claim is double: That there are classics of the avantgarde and that these in theiroriginal form speak to people of today. Analogies are at hand, but are they accurate? Was goingto Dionysus in 69 in Austin like going to a museum and regarding a painting from anothercentury? Are live actors the equivalent of inanimate paints or other materials? And what aboutthe audience? Audiences for live performances interact with each other and with the show.

Museum-goers look at art objects. Or they used totodays art museums are much moreinteractive than formerly; but none that I know of allows the viewers to touch, change, ordirectly intervene with the works on display.

Writing with great intelligence and sensitivity about why he agreed to restage 18 Happenings,Lepecki said he didnt know much about the original production except Michael Kirbys verymeticulous description of it, which, up until Kaprows archives became available, was the

1. Te Living Teatre also broughtMysteriesback in 1994.

2. At New Yorks Performa 05, Marina Abramovis Seven Easy Piecesreworked some of her own earlier performances

as well as pieces by Joseph Beuys, Bruce Nauman, and Gina Pane. Abramovi did not try to duplicate the originals

(which aside from her own, she had not seen). So although Seven Easy Piecesis a forerunner of what I am writing

about, it is not dead on. See Cesare and Joy (2006).
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.html


3/7

13

Comment

discursive proxy for the event(2009). Lepecki also noted that Kaprow dened Happeningsas events that exist for a single performance, or only a few, and are gone forever as new onestake their place (Kaprow 2003:17). On these grounds, Lepecki almost declined the invitationto restage.

Lepecki nally accepted because rst and foremost: Kaprows extraordinarily generouspersonal consent. But there were other reasons. Lepecki found in Kaprows notes

a massive textual and visual work, almost autonomous in itself in its prolic poeticramications and performative potentialities. [] On paper, 18 Happenings in 6 Partsis a dynamic, truly rhizomatic collection of virtual ideas, beautiful poems, impossibleactions, architectural dreams, sharp short manifestos on art, music, and theatre, hilari-ously self-aggrandizing narratives, hilariously self-deprecating narratives, brilliantlycompact theoretical texts, insightful quasi-ethnographic snapshots of quotidian expres-sions, acute diagnostics on urban life, heartbreaking confessions of the artist before thehuge challenges posed by the project. (2009)

In other words, restaging 18 Happeningsput Lepeckiand by inference, audiencesdirectly

in touch with Kaprows Kaprowness. Or, to put it another way, redoing the Happening was theonly way to know it as an artwork in a way analogous to how a museum viewer may know apainting by seeing it (however out of context, however removed in time from the occasion of itsbeing painted). This sense of rst encounter is a core reason for the spate of restagings we arewitnessingand why we are bound to see a lot more of them.

The experience of rst encounter is paradoxically both missing from todays media-infectedexperiences and made possible largely because of the prodigiously increased abilities to archive.To make an accurate rst encounter (again), one needs a score and/or lm-video record. Thusthe paradox: only by virtue of an ever-increasing and ever-more complete audiovisual record(from celluloid to videotape to digital traces) can what is to be restored and replayed be accessed.Lepecki had Kaprows detailed artists notes plus Kirbys description. But Lepecki also had to ll

in a lot of details. And he faced the difcult problem that Kaprows Happening was to be showninside an art museum while in 1959 it was staged in the Reuben gallery, an empty loft onFourth Avenue in Manhattans East Village (2009). Not to mention that in 1959, Allan Kaprowwas not yet thatAllan Kaprow: his work was not canonized; the audience consisted largely offriends-cum-fellow artists, etc. etc. As with 18 Happenings,so with all other replays: they arereplayed because the productions have grown into famous events, they were not (necessarily)that back when.

But Anna Halprins Parades and Changes, unlike Kaprows 18 Happenings, was to some degreefamous from the moment of rst presentation. Or, maybe, notorious. As Alexis Clements notedabout Parades and Changesat New Yorks 2009 Performa:

Originally staged in 1965, the piece caused a sensation both in the dance world and withthe general public. When the work was mounted for the rst time in New York in 1967,arrest warrants were issued for the artists involved. Why all the fuss? At the time nudityon the citys stages was illegal and rarely used, even among those who would thwart thelaw. Today, nudity in performance art and dance has become banal in some sense, or atthe very least expected in many settings. Halprins use of the nude body was one of theearliest, most deliberate and prolonged examples. That said, the lack of clothing was onlyone of the conventions that Parades & Changeswas pushing up against. Perhaps moreimportantly was her testing of conventions of sexuality, authorship, and even the deni-tion of dance. Given all that, it might be fair to expect that the reimagining of the piece[] would no longer carry the same bite as the original had over forty years ago. Whileits true that it wasnt a shock to see naked bodies on the stage or to see same sex cou-

plings, what was surprising and still resonant about the piece was the struggle that we stillhave within ourselves and as a culture to come to terms with our bodies, our sexuality, and
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.html


4/7

14

Commen

t

what it means to represent oneself in the world. In other words, the work taps into both auniversal human struggle and a cultural struggle that persists. (2009)

Yes, the struggle persists, and this is why these seemingly outdated works still appeal. Butappeal in what way? As nostalgia, as a challenge, as a model for action, as a reproach? And

precisely what struggle? Against the perpetual wars we are in, for social justice, againstpoverty, for real democracy? Before parsing the appeal, let me offer one more example.

In December 2009 the Rude Mechanicals of Austin, Texas staged as exact a replication ofDionysus in 69 as they could manage using Brian de Palmas movie, the book of texts and photos,and my participation in a few rehearsals. The director, Shawn Sides, stated:

Re-enactments always differ from the original to varying degrees, of course, and well justnever know how close or far our version really, really is. Not even Richard can tell us,because memory is such a funny thing. We studied blocking, and gestures and inection,and the way the original actors carried themselvestheir personal physical habitsfromthe lm. We would call it karaokewed play the lm and perform along with it. Butweve also added scenes that were cut from the lm, and put the nudity back into the birth

and death rituals.3 The moments that weve put back in, or tweaked, are inaccurate interms of the lm, but more accurate in terms of the original performance. And thentheres all that audience interaction. The accuracy comes not only from the technical workbut also from the spirit of the thing. [] I think part of the creative challenge that theactors are digging into is riding the line between technically re-tracing the original castsphysicality and being alive and present as themselves in the room. Its really hard andtheyre really good at it. (2009)

In Austin, the audiences participated with even more abandon than they did 41 years earlier.In the performances I attended, more than half the audience joined in dancing and caressingeach other. And when I wasnt there, the spectators jumped into the performance even moreenthusiastically. On 2 January 2010, Sides emailed me:

The nal Friday [18 December] was the most Dionysian. The Hill Country Nudistsheard about the show and took off their clothes as soon as they found a seat, remainednaked, of course, for the whole play. During the caress a couple crept off by the bathroomand had sex standing up. Toward the very end of the caress a woman who wasnt in thecaress apparently saw a guy down on the oor in the caress that she thought was hot andcouldnt take it anymore. So she came down off the high platform and made a beeline forhim and started making out. Not normal making out, but like they do in soap operas withlots of grunting noises and rolling around. They would NOT leave the mat. They justkept grunting and rolling around all during the death ritual and the clean up and theydidnt quit till the uorescent lights came up at the end. They had come with other datesand they left with those other dates. You would think they would at least leave together.

One of the critics made it his #1 art experience of 2009. Another put it at #3. (2010)

There are several reasons why audience participation in 2009 was so total. First, what wasshocking and new in 1968 is no longer so. Secondly, Dionysus in 69 in Austin had plenty of pre-performance publicitymuch of it emphasizing the promised nakedness and participation.Audiences attending the Rudes production knew what was expected of them, or at least

3. When Te Performance Group opened Dionysus in 69in June 1968, there was no nakedness. But after Jerzy

Grotowski saw the piece and commented on the hypocrisy and teasing quality of the costuming, the almost

but not quite naked, the Group decided to perform the birth and death rituals naked. In the lm, the Group

returned to the costume version because we, and de Palma, wanted the movie to be widely distributedand we

felt that total nakedness, both women and men, would prevent this.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.html


5/7

15

Comment

encouraged. But there was more, I think. Spectators were honoring a kind of sexuality-without-fear of the pre-AIDS epoch; they were retro-enjoying an interlude of release that theyat least thought characterized the 60s. The audience intentionally overlooked the cautionarytale that Dionysus in 69 told in its own time, a tale that remains clear in the retelling. As I wroteas the conclusion of my Politics of Ecstasy: Are we ready for the liberty we have grasped?

Can we cope with Dionysus dance and not end upas Agave didwith our sons heads onour dancing sticks? (1969:228). Few in Austin wanted to hear that.

In 2004 the Wooster Group premiered Poor Theatre in Warsaw; and in 2006,HamletinBerlin. Both of these productions focused on exactly reproducing earlier performancesthe 1968lm of the Polish Laboratory TheatresAkropolis(1962)4 and Richard Burtons 1964Hamlet. InPoland, Poor Theatrewas regarded by many as a faded carbon copy (Kowalczyk in Dunkelberg2005:49) and by others as a new look at Grotowski (Gruszczynski in Dunkelberg 2005:50). Thereason I am not detailing the Wooster Groups works in this Comment is simply because, asSavran (2005) notes, Woosters renditions are enactments of absences, the negation of the kindof presence and re-presence of originals typied by the redoings of works by Kaprow, Halprin,and The Performance Group. In other words, part of the success of the redoings is the rejection

of postmodern cool in favor of a retro-hot. If this is sterile nostalgia or a fertile harbingerremains to be determined. Or to put it still another way, again following Savran, Poor Theatreis all about deaththe death of artists in and close to The Performance Group and the WoosterGroup (Stephen Borst, Ron Vawter, Paul Schmidt, Spalding Gray) and the death of the avant-garde itself.

The source works engaged the world; the redoings engage the task of redoing. The redoingsengage the world also, but from the position of been there, done that. The source works werenot originalnothing is original; all were based on earlier experiments and probings. But theauteurs of the source works (including me) operated under a very compelling and energizingillusion: that we could make something truly new. Almost like an imitation of birthing: each childis genetically a continuation, yet each child is new, itself. And the 1960s (understood as an epoch,

not a decade), for all its horrors, and there were many, shown forth optimistically by engagingthese horrors with a view to ending them. Utopia was not yet a farce. In redoing the works of thatepoch, people get the chance to experience an aftertaste of, pardon me, spass(fun by Brecht) andjouissance (pleasure by Lacan).

In the fall of 2009 I taught a course on the performances of the 1960s. Nicole Marie Robergeand Elliot Gordon Mercer elected to restage some classics of the period. One of these was aredoing of Simone Fortis 1961Huddle (also restaged in 2009 at New Yorks Museum of ModernArt). The Roberge-Mercer-FortiHuddle took place on a rainy morning under the gushingfountain in Washington Square Park. The six performers were doubly soaked as they piled ontop of each other, the whole huddle slowly circulating around the fountain. A few passersbystopped to look, some under umbrellas. And then, to my surprise and delight, an onlooker

ran to the huddle and joined in. And then another, and another.Huddle, like Dionysus in 69 inAustin, reignited a new generation of participating spectators.Huddlewas part of a series ofredoings staged by Roberge and Mercer in 2009. Their description-manifesto fuses concernsof the 1960s, what Sally Banes dubbed democracys body ([1983] 1993), with a very particular21st-century agenda:

We have spent the past six months reinventing performance pieces by Trisha Brown,Lucinda Childs, Anna Halprin, Simone Forti, and Allan Kaprow. These reinventions

4. Te 85-minute 1968 lm ofAkropoliswas directed by James Macaggart. It was shot in a London television studio

before an invited audience. See http://www.lmlinc.com/wrt/onsale09/grotowski.html and also Romanska (2009).

Poor eatrealso included a section based on several of choreographer William Forsythes lectures and dance les-

sons. Tese were not as exactly mimicked as GrotowskisAkropolis.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.html


6/7

16

Commen

t

explore the translation from one body to another, one space and time to another, and onemovement score to another. Transitioning these dances into contemporary contexts opensup new ways of engaging with dance history and performance theory. The performancespaces used for these reinventions are not conventional stages but outdoor public sitesaround downtown Manhattan. In rejecting traditional staging these pieces transform

public space into performance space, democratizing pedestrian, quotidian activities,physical bodies, and dance performance itself. Since the process of reinvention involvesthe evolution and recontextualization of the original work, these pieces challenge thenotion that dances are necessarily xed choreographically and historically. Transitioningthese experimental movement scores across time and space emphasizes the physical actof creation and practice. These embodied tributes reinvigorate the ideas and ideals ofexperimental dance. (2009)

At a more personal level, Roberge emailed me on 10 January 2010. In part, she wrote:

Looks like practice, the doing, is becoming more popular again. (HOORAY!) Restagingcan raise the same personal, social, political, and cultural questions as back then. Its like

were saying: Okay, were still at war, were still not equal, were still fucking up theplanet bigtime What went wrong? Lets go back and try that again. Or Lets trythat again, our way. Sure, maybe it would be better for us to write letters or to run forofce or to join the peace corps, but every ant in the ant hill has a role to play. Thereinventors are surely not ONLY interested in reinvention. Small-scale subversion, fromwithin and en plein air, of sky-rocketing capitalism, conservatism, and the entertainment/escapist industry, the restaging of radical performances might be one way to relaunch,seeking new directions. I do think the key interest in restaging or playing with the worksof the 1960s and 1970s is often as a conduit for the exploration of ideas and possibilitiesthat vanguard artists introduced to American stages, or in many cases, off stages, allowingthe physical performer to experience something unlike conventional acting or classicaldance, something that still feels new today because it is new each time. (Roberge 2010)

New each time in the manner of Shakespeares The TempestwhenProspero replies to hisdaughter Mirandas: O brave new world, That has such people int! Tis new to thee(V, 1, 20911).

Yes, even as these reconstructions ignite they also open to a eld of regret: we live in atime of lost opportunities. In the 21st century even more than in the 20th we know whatails the world, but we see our leadersand by proxy, ourselvesfail to heal whats wrong.Global warming is mocked by Copenhagens failure. We know war isnt the answer, yetPresident Barack Obama, a philosopher king if the USA ever had one, repeats the syndromeKorea-Vietnam-Iraq-Afghanistan. The American health care system is terribly inadequate andill-conceived, and the rest of the world offers several excellent models, but our lobby-and-prot-

driven Congress comes up with a Rube Goldberg reform. After the scal meltdown of 2008,we know that Wall Street needs tighter regulation, homeowners need mortgage help, and thejobless need both infrastructure jobs and green jobs, new kinds of jobs, based on a we-are-going-to-the-moon effort,5 but we get half-hearted measures. Our political leaders are better

5. JFKs 1962 speech in Houston set the tone for the decade. At the core of his oration: We choose to go to the

moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because

they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that

challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win,

and the others, too. [] And this will be done in the decade of the Sixties ([1962] 2007). What others? Peaceful

coexistence with the USSR, social programs, racial justice, gender equality... A whole lot; some done, most still

awaiting fulllment.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.html


7/7

17

Comment

at clobbering each other and taking bribes (legal and not legal) than in addressing the problemsat handfor which solutions are known. No wonder at the artistic level so many are fascinated withthe past.

So much past awaiting us in the future.

References

Banes, Sally. [1983] 1993. Democracys Body: Judson Dance Theater, 19621964. Durham: Duke UniversityPress.

Cesare, T. Nikki, and Jenn Joy. 2006. Performa/(Re)Performa. TDR 50, 1 (T189):17077.

Clements, Alexis. 2009. At Performa: Replaying Anna Halprins Parades & Changes. The L Magazine.www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2009/11/19/at-performa-replaying-anna-halprins-parades-and-changes (22 January 2010).

Dunkelberg, Kermit. 2005. Confrontation, Simulation, Admiration: The Wooster Groups Poor Theater.TDR 49, 3 (T187):4356.

Kaprow, Allan. 2003.Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life. Ed. Jeff Kelley. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press.

Kennedy, John F. [1962] 2007. Challenging America to Reach the Moon, September 12, 1962. In Charge!Historys Greatest Military Speeches, ed. Steve Isreal. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.

Lepecki, Andr. 2009. Redoing 18 Happenings in 6 Parts. MAP, January. www.perfomap.de/current/iii.-kuenstlerische-praxis-als-forschung/redoing-201c18-happenings-in-6-parts201d (12 January 2010).

Roberge, Nicole Marie, and Elliot Gordon Mercer. 2009. Project Proposal. Unpublished manuscript.

Roberge, Nicole Marie. 2010. Email correspondence with author, 10 January.

Romanska, Magda. 2009. Between History and Memory: Auschwitz inAkropolis,Akropolisin Auschwitz.Theatre Survey, 50, 2:22350.

Savran, David. 2005. The Death of the Avantgarde. TDR 49, 3 (T187):1042.

Schechner, Richard. 1969. Politics of Ecstasy. In Public Domain: Essays on Theatre, 20928. Indianapolis:

Bobbs-Merrill Company.

Sides, Shawn. 2009. Interview: Shawn Sides on Dionysus in 69.Austinist. http://austinist.com/2009/12/04/interview_shawn_sides_on_dionysus_i.php (12 January 2010).

Sides, Shawn. 2010. Email correspondence with author, 2 January.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.htmlhttp://muse.jhu.edu/journals/tdr/summary/v054/54.2.schechner.html

Documents

54.2.Schechner HAPPENING