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Girls, Performance and Activism offers artists, activists, educators and scholars a comprehensive analysis, celebration and critique of the ways in which teenage girls create and perform activist theater.
List of contents
1 "Under Construction": Girls, Performance, and Activism 2 "This is Not a Safe Space": Principles of Theatermaking with Girls 3 "Real Im(PERFECT)ions": Performing Confidence, Expressing Agency 4 "Held Momentarily": For an Audience of One… Plus 5 "Shut Up and Listen!": Performance in Public Spaces 6 "Finally Someone Hears Us": Considering Our Audiences
About the author
Dana Edell is an assistant professor of Applied Theatre at Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.
Summary
Girls, Performance and Activism offers artists, activists, educators and scholars a comprehensive analysis, celebration and critique of the ways in which teenage girls create and perform activist theater.
Additional text
"The book is a pleasure to read, exuding the energy and panache of teenage girls. It does not skimp on theory but is clear in its exposition. Writing at the intersection of performance, activism, and girls’ studies, Edell balances an overview with firsthand experience. She expresses a love for the subject while being critical. She lets the reader in on her own questions and struggles, and the girls’ successes and challenges. Assessing the work’s impact on the girls themselves, their friends and family, and the 'world' beyond gets the reader thinking about what performance can and cannot do."
—Jan Cohen-Cruz, writerand teacher, socially engaged performance
"In Girls, Performance, and Activism, girls are a force to bereckoned with. All the world’s a stage for their urgent messages, whether they’re performing at a United Nations meeting, in a neighborhood park, at a protest rally, a school cafeteria, or in a TikTok video. Freely voiced and fully embodied, activism is their first language. Dana Edell offers us all a masterclass in girl-driven theater as a praxis of liberation and a vehicle for social change. She confronts the complexities of partnering with girls across difference and incites us all to bear critical witness to girls’ imagination, rage, creativity, and joy."
—Lyn Mikel Brown, Professor of Education, Colby College; author of Powered by Girl: A Field Guide for Supporting Youth Activists
