Dan Friedman’s Courses, Workshops and Study Groups
This page is a listing of the courses, workshops, and study groups that I’m leading at any given time. The listings will include the course title, a brief description, the time frame and the institution where the course is taking place. In those cases where enrollment is still open a link will be provided for those interested in joining.
Performing in the Poor Communities
East Side Institute
Sunday, May 17, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Eastern
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The Autobiography of a Development Community
East Side Institute
Ongoing, every other Sunday, 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
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Introduction to Performance Activism
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
August 31 - December 8
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The Future of Performance Psychology in Japan
Dan Friedman and Holzman
University of Tsukuba, Tokyo, Japan
August 16 – 18
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What’s Possible?
East Side Institute
A Five-Week Online Course
Dates: July 7 – August 6
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UX Summer Political History Film Festival
UX, 543 West 42 Street, N.Y.C.
Saturdays, July 8, 15, 22, 29, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Performing in the Poor Communities
Carrie Lobman's PLAY DEVELOPMENT & SOCIAL JUSTICE SERIES
A Webinar
Sunday, May 17, 12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Eastern Fee: $25; Low Income $15
The Play, Development and Social Justice series will feature guest facilitator Dan Friedman, artistic director of the Castillo Theatre in New York City. He will lead a conversation with social activists from across the United States about their performance work in the poor and marginalized communities. Joining Friedman will be:
Lynn Fischer, Executive & Co-Artistic Director, Mass Transit Theatre (Bronx)
John Malpede, Founding Artistic Director, Los Angeles Poverty Dept
Shadae McDaniels, City Leader, All Stars Project of NJ
Anthony Mosely, Artistic Director, Collaboraction (Chicago)
They will discuss the history of their work and why and how they do performance work in some of the country’s poorest communities. Among the questions they will explore are: What does performance have to do with grassroots organizing, with human development, with social change? How do they make use of the most powerful aspects of play? If you are interested in play, performance or social justice and want to learn about the dynamic relation among them, join this conversation! Dan Friedman is the artistic director of the Castillo Theatre in New York City and the associate dean of UX, the All Stars Project’s free university-like school of continuing development for people of all ages. He is the author or co-author of 17 plays. Dan is also the editor of a number of books, including Theatre for Working Class Audience in the United States, 1830-1980 (Greenwood Press, 1983) and The Cultural Politics of Heiner Müller (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007). He is currently working on a book for Palgrave on the emerging performance activist movement around the world. In addition to his work at Castillo, Dan has directed at La Mama E.T.C., the Nuyorican Poets Café and various New York City colleges. Register Today!
For more information contact Melissa Meyer: mmeyer@eastsideinstitute.org
The Autobiography of a Development Community
East Side Institute
Ongoing, every other Sunday, 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
The ongoing study group explores the history, concepts and methodology of the postmodern Marxism that has emerged over the last 30 years from the activities of the development community originally led by the late Dr. Fred Newman. This study group consists of reading various texts aloud and discussing them. Students can attend in person or through ZOOM and may join the group at any time.
To register: http://eastsideinstitute.org/events/
Introduction to Performance Activism
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
August 31 - December 8
This course investigates the use of performance as a creative response to local and global social problems. We will learn about the theatrical precursors to performance activism (experimental, political and educational theatre), as well as the influence of performative psychology and philosophy on its development, and look at contemporary examples from all over the world. Performance activism embodies a fundamental shift in the way (some) people are working to bring about social change. In the modern era, the dominant modality of social change was confrontation, demonstration and protest. The instructor is in contact with scores of performance activists on every continent, some of who will be involved directly, via Skype, in live interviews and conversations with the class. Integrated throughout the course will be performatory exercises and experiments taking place both in class and out, and the students will work with the instructor to create a final performance-based activist project in the community.
To Register: Must be a Harvard student
The Future of Performance Psychology in Japan
Dan Friedman and Holzman
University of Tsukuba, Tokyo, Japan
August 16 – 18
A series of lectures and workshops by Lois Holzman, director of the East Side Institute and Dan Friedman, artistic director of the Castillo Theatre, on performance psychology and performance activism and their implications for development and social transformation in Japan,
Registration: by invitation
What’s Possible?
East Side Institute
A Five-Week Online Course
Dates: July 7 – August 6
“What’s Possible?” is a question of vital concern to progressive educators, artists and, perhaps most pressingly, to social, political and cultural activists. What we believe to be possible determines what we try to change and how we try to do it. How do human beings come to our collective conclusions about what’s possible and what’s not? How are the borders of the possible established by various cultures? Are there ways to break out of established ways of understanding/interfacing with reality? Can we create new ways of seeing and bringing into being new possibilities? These are the questions that will be explored by conversation on line, utilizing readings of Fred Newman, Lois Holzman and Dan Friedman.
To register: http://eastsideinstitute.org/events/
UX Summer Political History Film Festival
UX, 543 West 42 Street, N.Y.C.
Saturdays, July 8, 15, 22, 29, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
For four Saturdays in July, UX students will be able to experience, for free, powerful documentary political history films, curated by Dean Lenora Fulani and Associate Dean Dan Friedman. Each screening will be followed by conversations with Fulani and/or Friedman and others expert in the topics of the film.
__ Partisans of Vilna
Saturday, July 8, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Giving lie to the claim that the Jews of Europe went passively to their deaths during the Holocaust, this film is an eye-opening portrait of the courageous Jewish resistance fighters in Vilna, Lithuania whose armed resistance fought back against hopeless odds—one of the many centers of Jewish resistance during World War II.
__ The Wobblies
Saturday, July 15, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), commonly known as the Wobblies, were the most radical union in American history. The Wobblies worked to organize all working people, no matter what their occupations, gender, race or ethnicity into One Big Union with the vision not only of improving wages and working conditions but building an alternative to government in which poor and working people could rule themselves and create a equitable world. This film takes a look at an important movement that has been erased from official American history.
__ Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Saturday, July 22, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
This disturbing documentary tells the story of the Black Panther Party, America’s Black Marxists, whose organizing of the poor was met with a reign of terror launched by local police departments and the F.B.I.
__ Poverty, Politics and Profit
Saturday, July 29, 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
This 2017 Public Broadcasting-Frontline documentary looks at the connections between politics and profit-making that are driving more and more Americans to homelessness. This is a must see film for all involved with the Committee for Independent Community Action’s fight to resist the New York City Housing Authority’s attempts to privatize public housing.
Students can also just show up at UX: 543 West 42nd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Manhattan.