Convener: Marcela A. Fuentes, Ivone Barriga, & Katherine Zien

This working group invites scholars, artists, and activists to explore ways in which theatre and performance intersect with hegemonic, residual, and emergent economies both in the theater and in urban settings. How are local and global economic forces represented and/or embodied in performances in the Americas? How do bodies account for forms of exploitation and pleasure as economies of scarcity and excess? How have economy and theatre impacted, challenged, or reinforced the (gendered, racial) division of labor in the Americas? How does the digital contribute to create new spaces for the disruption and critique of “virtual” economic systems or systems based on speculation?

Biographies

Marcela Fuentes (Marshagall) is a performance scholartist from Argentina. She currently lives between Chicago, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires, where she teaches, writes, and performs on topics such as transnationalism, new forms of political engagement, and artistic responses to crises.

Ivone Barriga is a Ph.D. candidate in the Theatre Historiography program at the University of Minnesota, twin cities. Her topics of interests are related to theatre and performance for social change in the Americas, with emphasis in post-colonial and transnational theories and the impact of neoliberalism over racial, class and gender formations. She is also a theatre director and performer.

Katie Zien is a doctoral candidate in Northwestern University’s Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Theatre and Drama (IPTD). Her pedagogy and research focus on theatre and performance in the Americas, including topics such as spatial semiotics, postcolonial and transnational theory, and intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class in North and Latin American theatre practices after 1850.

Participants

Sérgio Andrade
Raquel Araujo
Jason Bush
Camila Gonzalez
Luis Gustavo Monge Rojas
Noe Montez
Leticia Robles-Moreno
Javier Serna