Articles, Chapters and Talks by
Dan Friedman
Cultural Politics
Theatre History and Criticism
Brecht, Müller and Newman
On this page you will find talks I have delivered at academic conferences, articles that have been published in scholarly and popular journals, chapters that have appeared in various books, as well as unpublished papers and talks that were written as part of the training of teachers and political and performance activists in various contexts.
It is, perhaps, a curious oeuvre reflecting, as it does, my work over the decades as a theatre historian, a progressive political activist, and an advocate for performance activism in general and for the work of the Castillo Theatre and the playwrights Fred Newman and Heiner Müller in particular.
To make it easier to find the article or topic you may be interested in exploring, I have divided the talks, papers and chapters into three categories:
• Cultural Politics, which contains writings on the intersection of culture and politics;
• Theatre History and Criticism, which includes writings about the Castillo Theatre, as well as the history of theatre and performance and their potentialities and limitations as forces for social change;
• Brecht, Müller and Newman, which focuses on the work of those three playwright/directors and the influence they have had on the Castillo Theatre and beyond.
These categories have been imposed in retrospect and therefore there is overlap of the topics, the concerns and the ideas articulated in the writings now separated by topic.
Within each category, the writings are arranged in reverse chronological order, that is, with the most recent at the top. If you know the title of the writing you are looking for you can access it by entering it in the search line.
Those wanting to quote from any of these writings are welcome to do so, as long as the source is duly cited. Those who wish to publish unpublished talks and articles are encouraged to do so, assuming you let me know. Those who wish to republish published material need to seek permission from the original publisher.
Cultural Politics
“Annual Lloyd International Honors College Lecture“
Performance Activism: A Reconstructive Approach to Social Activism and Generating Possibility
Delivered September 12, 2022
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“Distinguishing Power From Authority“
International Society for Cultural Activity Research conference, August 6, 2021
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“Performing a Positive Alternative
Amid a Failing World Order”
Presented at the Alternative Futures and Popular Protest Conference, Manchester University, April 16, 2019
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”Something New Under the Sun”
Plenary Talk to Play, Perform, Learn, Grow Thessaloniki, Greece, April 13, 2018
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“Creating a Public Space/Activity for Civic Engagement and Development”
Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities Conference 2017
“Arts in the Public Sphere: Civility, Advocacy and Engagement” Northeastern University (November 3, 2017)
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“Performance Activism: An Emerging Global Strategy for Reinitiating Human Development and Creating Community”
Unpublished talk delivered at the 2017 Japan All Stars Workshop:
“The Future of Performatory Psychology in Action,” University of Tsukuba, Tokyo August 17, 2017
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“Theatre and Performance, Community and Development: The Castillo Experience“
Unpublished talk delivered at the International Conference on Social Learning and Recovery, Fu-Jen University, Taipei (November 25, 2016)
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“Self-Organizing Institutions and the Development of Citizenship Culture”
Unpublished Talk At International Conference On Citizenship Culture, Bogota, Colombia, October 19, 2016
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“Performance and Development: Some Reflections on the Relationship Between Theatre, Community and Social Change”
Revista Interdisciplinar De Gestão Social, 2013, Vol. 1, No. 1
“Good-bye Ideology, Hello Performance”
Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy, 2011, Vol. 30, No. 2
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“Diversity As A Method of Re-Distribution”
Unpublished talk at International Drama/Theatre and Education Association conference, Belém, Brazil (2010)
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“Toward a Postmodern Marxism…”
Unpublished (2009)
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“Giving Away the Theatre. The Youth Onstage! Community Performance School: A Study in Building Bridges between Theatre Professionals and Inner City Youth”
2006
“Approaches to Social Change: The Politics of Social Development”
Unpublished (2005)
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“Performance of a Lifetime”: Interactive Growth Theatre and the Development of Performance in Everyday Life”
Theatre Insight (2000)
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“Performance as Revolutionary Activity: Liminality and Social Change”
Body, Space & Technology Journal, November, 2000, Vol. 1, No. 1
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“Twenty-Two Weeks of Pointless Conversation”
Performing Psychology: A Postmodern Culture of the Mind, ed. Lois Holzman, Routledge (1999)
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“What’s Possible? — A Way to Think About Thinking” with Fred Newman
Practice, Fall 1987, Vol. 5, No. 2
Theatre History and Criticism
“Theatre, Community, and Development: The Performance Activism of the Castillo Theatre”
The Drama Review (TDR), 60: 4 (T232) Winter 2016, pp. 68-91
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Friedman, D. and Holzman, L. “Performing the World: The Performance Turn in Social Activism”
In Atay Citorn, David Zerbib, and Sharon Aronson-Lehavi (Eds.), Performance Studies in Motion: International Perspectives and Practices in the Twenty-First Century (Methuen, 2014)
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“Theatre for Nothing”
Unpublished talk at International Drama/Theatre and Education Association conference, Belém, Brazil, 2010
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“Everyone’s an Angel”
Chapter in Angels in the American Theater: Patron, Patronage, and Philanthropy, ed. Robert A. Schanke, Southern Illinois University Press, 2007
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“The Changing Nature of Political Theatre”
Unpublished talk at Association of Theatre in Higher Education conference, San Francisco, July 31, 2005.
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“Extra-Theatrical Performance: Acting Leaves Home and Finds a Whole New World”
Back Stage, August 1-7, 2003, pp. 24-27
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“Ensemble Acting Companies: A Different Kind of Life in the Theatre”
Back Stage, June 13-19, 2003, pp. 24-27
“The Dramaturg: Help or Hindrance?”
In Back Stage, September 27-October 3, 2002, pp. 30-33
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“Deconstruction and Development of the Opera Carmen”
With Gabrielle Kurlander (Modern Drama, Volume XLII, No. 2, Summer 2000)
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“Castillo: The Making of a Postmodern Political Theatre”
In Theatre Symposium, 2000, (Vol. 8), pp. 130-140
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“Models of Non-Profit Theatre Funding in the United States in the 20th Century and the Emergence of a New Model for the 21st”
Unpublished talk, Mid-American Theatre Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, March, 13, 1999.
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“A Brief Description of the Workers’ Theatre Movement of the Thirties”
Chapter in Theatre for Working Class Audiences in the United State, 1830-1980, ed. Bruce A. McConachie and Daniel Friedman, Greenwood Press, 1985
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“Contemporary Theatre for Working Class Audience in the United States”
Chapter in Theatre for Working Class Audiences in the United State, 1830-1980, ed. Bruce A. McConachie and Daniel Friedman, Greenwood Press, 1985
Brecht, Müller and Newman
“Introduction to the Chinese Edition The Myth of Psychology”
February 14, 2021
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“Blooming Buzzing Confusion” with Fred Newman
Chapter in The Cultural Politics of Heiner Müller, ed. Dan Friedman, Oxford Scholars Publishing, 2007
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“Bringing Müller to the Mainstream”
Unpublished talk, Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference, San Francisco, July 31, 2005
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“From the Street to the Stage and Back Again: Fred Newman, Citizen Artist”
Unpublished talk, International Federation for Theatre Research, University of Maryland, College Point, MD. June 27, 2005.
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“Blacks and Jews: Embodiment of the Other in the Plays of Fred Newman”
Unpublished talk, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Toronto, Canada, July 31, 2004.
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Introduction to Müller in America: American Productions of Works by Heiner Müller, 2003
Müller in America: American Productions of Works by Heiner Müller (Castillo Cultural Center, 2003)
“Performance Community Onstage and on the Street: Castillo Theatre and Heiner Müller's Germania 3”
The Drama Review, Vol. 47, No. 3 (T179), Fall 2003
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“Dialectical method in the work of Brecht and its role in the postmodernizing of the theatre”
This article was published in Communications from the International Brecht Society (Volume 31, June 2002)
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“Who’s Black? Who’s White? Who’s Gay? Who’s Straight? Who Cares? Fred Newman’s Plays of Erotic and Political Transgression”
With Thecla Farrell (unpublished talk, Association of Theatre in Higher Education, 2000)
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“Une étude sur la nature de l’identité, L’interface entre Noirs et Juifs dan les pièces de Fred Newman”
(“The Interface Between Blacks and Jews in the Plays of Fred Newman: A Study in the Nature of Identity”)
With Jeffrey Aron, trans. Bernard Phipps. Portulan : Mémoire juive, mémoire nègre, deux figures du destin, editor Roger Toumson (Vents des Îles, 1998), pp. 193-212
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“Introduction” to Still on the Corner and other postmodern political plays by Fred Newman
Castillo Cultural Center, 1998, pp. xxv to xl