Rebekah Bryer, Northwestern University

Proposal Type

Experiential

Seeking

  • Seeking Additional Presenters
  • Seeking Specific Expertise
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
  • Memory
  • Public Engagement
  • Reflections on the Field
Abstract

There has been a lot of discussion in the public history field on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, how it has captured the cultural imagination, and the impact it has had. Beyond “the ten dollar founding father without a father,” theatre has always been a space where the past and present can collide for audiences, shaping historical narratives in tandem with an emotional catharsis. This session would explore how the theatre works as a commemorative space, including possible audience participation readings from plays like Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop or The Tectonic Theater Project’s The Laramie Project in order to interrogate how theatre and performance, paired with historical methods, can possibly be a space for reparative work.

Description

As a panel, I would imagine that this topic would work best with discussion paired with reading from brief excerpts of plays; somewhere between a structured conversation and collaborative conversation but I would be open to considering a different presentation format. I would be looking for more presenters who are interested in the intersection of theatre and performance and public history who would be willing to discuss theatre as commemorative space, and think that the discussion could be narrowed to a specific type of theatre if we so chose, but I like the concept of keeping the discussion of the larger role of theatre as wide as possible.


If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Rebekah Bryer, [email protected]

All feedback and offers of assistance should be submitted by July 1, 2018. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion

6 comments
  1. Steven High says:

    I like the idea of the theatrical performance/play as commemorative act. Of course there is a long tradition of oral history performance (verbatim and documentary theatre certainly, but other forms) where memory itself is on stage. I think the Laramie Project falls within that tradition. After all the past is present in living memory. The distance between past/present, narrator/actor, are being challenged even more when theatre turns to new forms like “headphone verbatim” (where actors listen directly to narrators, and the 4th wall is broken to some extent for audience members). Just some thoughts. Good luck!

    1. Rebekah Bryer says:

      Thank you for your comment! I’ll definitely consider these points in the proposal.

  2. Patricia West says:

    You might connect with Lydia Nightingale as her proposal is a good match to yours. Also you might try to frame the session to align with the conference theme (would be easy to do I think).

    1. Rebekah Bryer says:

      I will contact Lydia Nightingale, thank you for the suggestion! And I agree that framing the topic with the conference theme would be relatively easy to do, and would be a helpful way to think through the ideas.

  3. Cathy Stanton says:

    Do you know the book Enacting History? It’s a great collection that covers a lot of types of historical performance and touches on a lot of the issues you’re raising here – could be worth a look if you’re not already familiar with it.

    I really love the idea of having audience members participate in some kind of brief staged readings. My sense is that people would find that really enlivening and a welcome change from the usual presentation format (and perhaps a way to “repair” that presenter/audience divide that even our fairly lively NCPH conference panels do sometimes reinforce!). I could envision a successful format where you include an excerpt from a play, a reading from an oral history, and perhaps an improvised scene à la living history (as in Zachary Stocks’ proposal), with some discussion about the relative merits of each as a way of repairing the sense of rift or separation of past and present.

  4. dann j. Broyld says:

    Perhaps opening up this panel to movies of cultural significance will help to interest more people on this dynamic topic.

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