H42.1016-001 Lec 4 Credits
Instructor(s): Mark Sussman
Theatre and Performance in New York
Mark Sussman
H42.1016-001 (Albert # 74523)
Monday - Thursday, 12:30 – 3:15 pm & according to performance schedule times, 4 points
Classroom 613
This course asks students to consider a wide variety of performances in New York – theatrical, choreographic, spontaneous,
religious, erotic, and political. Through theoretical readings and close analyses of performances attended, we ask not only how
the metropolis makes possible such a diverse performance culture, but also how these performances help to constitute our
understanding of the city’s identity. We are particularly attentive to the relation of performance to communities for and by
whom they are staged. With an eye to the civic and ritual calendar of the city’s life, the August session will focus on festival
arts, outdoor and participatory performances, as well as on gallery and museum exhibitions displaying objects and artifacts
relevant to the field of Performance Studies.
Mark Sussman directs, designs, teaches and writes. Since 1985, he has worked in New York and on tour with Mabou Mines, Antenna Theater,
Janie Geiser, Circus Amok, Paul Zaloom, Bread & Puppet Theater, and his OBIE-winning New York-based collective, Great Small Works. He
holds a Ph.D. from New York University’s Department of Performance Studies, where he received the Michael Kirby Memorial Award for
Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation. His essays on performance and culture have appeared in The Drama Review, (ai) performance for the planet,
Connect, Stagebill, Cabinet, Radical Street Performance (Routledge, 1999), and Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects (MIT, 2001). He has
taught at Barnard College/Columbia University, CalArts, Wesleyan University, the Parsons School of Design, and Undergraduate Drama at
NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. A native New Yorker, he is currently working as Assistant Professor of Theatre at Concordia University in
Montreal, Quebec.
