Theater and performance in times of excess

Coordinador: Gabriel Yépez

Libros de Godot / CITRU
México, 2011
269 p.

This book is the result of a cycle of round tables with several specialists, and it is structured around the social-political context of the country that was known as “times of excess” and around the artistic strategies (whether theatrical or performance) that answered to such a historical context. The work is headed by an important essay by Raimundo Mier regarding the possibilities and specifics of stage creation within a society structured around spectacular displays. The book is assembled by three “dialogues”: 1. “Scenes of Excess and Catastrophe. Theater and Scenarios of Violence: Stage Strategies Toward Creation of Meaning”, where the Mexican creative exercises in these fields are comparable to some registered in Colombia; 2. “The Theater: Another Possible Dimension for Reality. The Theater as Re-Shaper of Citizenship”, where the experiences of three theatrical practices are shared within punitive centers; and 3. “The Crime Scene: An Ethical Creation, Aesthetics and Politics. Ideological Broadcasting, Speech Regulation and Participation of the Mass Media in the Current Times”, where there is a reflection upon the uses of theatricality and the manner of representation in the wider field by the media. The volume also includes the text by Ernesto Anaya Ottone, “On the Shape the World Has”, resulting from his work in the Quiroz Cuarón prison for highly dangerous young criminals, and the action score, “Better Naked” by the Chihuahua collective DAC.