Social Justice Through Performance Art

The theories of Bertolt Brecht on theater favored alienation and shock over mere pleasure as a means of cultivating among viewers appropriate social views and behavior. As Kellner (2004) relates, ôBrecht sought to illuminate the historically specific features of an environment in order to show how that environment influence, and often battered and destroyed the charactersö (4). The shocking poster art of Guerilla Girls features a naked woman wearing a gorilla mask that features the text: ôDo women have to be naked to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art?ö (Poremba 2004, 1). The poster is a reaction to the fact that less than 5 percent of the artists in the museum are women, but 85 percent of the nudes are of women.

Such views as BrechtÆs and the womenÆs behind Guerilla Girls are meant to alienate the viewer by breaking through the conscious mindset that perpetuates social injustice. In devising a performance piece to address a problem in an upper class community, I advocate putting on a play entitled Camels and Needles. The play will be set in a jail cell that is populated by wealthy corporate executives like Kenneth Lay, Dennis Kozlowski, Martha Stewart, John Rigas, and Bernard Ebbers. All of these corporate executives have been charged with criminal activity aimed at increasing their own wealth, often at the expense of stockholders. Outside the jail cell I would have a street scene that is populated by a group of home

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Approximate Word count = 825
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page)

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