Performance Identity and Community

The relationships between performance, identity and community are of significant critical concern in theatre and performance studies. This working group explores the ways performance can allow constituencies of interest to be realised and to gain social efficacy. The group understands that each of our three key terms is complex, and that the terms and consequences of their intersection pose challenges for both critical and political practice. We wish to encourage research that engages the rubric of the group inventively and interrogatively, building on a number of key issues and problems:

• The basis on which performance may be linked with concerns of identity and community
• The ways in which relationships between performance, identity and community are materialised and gain theatrical and social efficacy
• The intersection between performance, civil society and democracy
• The historical and geographical inscription of this relationship
• The challenges and opportunities for critical practice posed by examining this relationship.