Inform yourself! Inform on your neighbor! Follow Special Agent Christian White on a cheerfully creepy tour of declassified government surveillance documents. White probes the redacted (blacked-out) texts of the FBI’s notorious Counterintelligence Programs, searching for the words erased in the name of the Freedom of Information Act. Learn fun techniques for the infiltration of activist groups, how to earn benefits and a pension as an agent provocateur, and how to, in the words of J. Edgar Hoover, “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize” your neighbors! These are our tax dollars at work, folks; we might as well enjoy it. This script has been performed by writer/activist L.M. Bogad in theatres, galleries, labor halls, and community centers for the past twelve years. The pamphlet also includes a preface by Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and a companion essay by Bogad about the history of domestic surveillance/harassment, and a “how to” for would-be performers of the script. Back by popular demand, this new Second Edition adds photos of the original COINTELPRO documents used in the show. There are also many updates to the script: more information, more character development, and more and better jokes, all in the darkly humorous style of the original.

Performing Truth answers the most pressing questions facing any theatre-makers who are wrestling with how to present historical, political or socioeconomic information in an engaging, entertaining, and galvanizing way. How to make data compelling and documents mobilizing? How to keep an audience interested in what might be dry, dire, or depressing? How to surprise an audience and keep them alert? Collecting together the performance texts of international performance artist and activist L.M. Bogad, this book accompanies each script with essays that further explore that work's performance strategies. It also equips readers with specific resources and pedagogical tools to help those wishing to stage these pieces or create their own work to engage with similar topics. Bogad also provides "takeaways" for each piece, illustrating the challenges of its particular subject matter and how to overcome those challenges with innovations unique to performance art. This is a key guidebook for artists and theatre-makers facing the challenges of engaging with information in an era of fake news, propaganda bots, and the polarization of ideological spheres, as well as students and teachers taking on that challenge in theatre studies, performance studies and performing arts classrooms.

Tactical Performance tells fun, mischievous stories of underdogs speaking mirth to power - through creative, targeted activist performance in the streets of cities around the world. This compelling, inspiring book also provides the first ever full-length practical and theoretical guide to this work. L.M.Bogad, one of the most prolific practitioners and scholars of this genre, shares the most effective non-violent tactics and theatrics employed by groups which have captured the public imagination in recent years. Tactical Performance explores carnivalesque protest in unique depth, looking at the possibilities for direct action and sometimes shocking confrontation with some of the most powerful institutions in the world. It is essential reading for anyone interested in creative pranksterism and the global justice movement.

Praise for the First Edition: 'A major contribution to performance studies. If cynicism and political quietism have quelled your impulse to rage against this sorry state of affairs, Bogad demonstrates, with wit and verve, that it is possible to expose the sham and, through a variety of performative tactics, make a meaningful contribution to democracy.' Modern Drama 'A compelling and urgent read. Bogad’s passion for the topic reminds the reader of the exhilaration of live performance and the importance of engagement in democratic life.' Theatre Journal 'Delightfully written and wonderfully provocative ... Valuable reading for any scholar of social movements.' Mobilization 'As a guide to both theory and action, it is insightful, entertaining and indispensable.' Andrew Boyd, Wrangler-in-Chief, Beautiful Trouble 'Beautifully contextualized within social movement theory, this book enlivens the debate about performative interventions into power.'Jan Cohen-Cruz, Editor, Public, A Journal of Imagining America 'Electoral Guerrilla Theatre deals a refreshing wild card in the repertoire of resistance.' Baz Kershaw, Emeritus Professor, University of Warwick, and author of The Radical In Performance. In liberal democracies across the globe, where the right to vote is framed as both civil right and civic duty, disillusioned creative activists run for public office on satiric, ironic and iconoclastic platforms. With little intention of "winning" in the conventional sense, they use drag, camp and stand-up comedy to undermine the legitimacy of their opponents and sometimes the electoral system itself. This revised and updated edition of Electoral Guerrilla Theatre explores the phenomenon of the satirical election campaign, and questions the purpose of such public political performances. Drawing on extensive archival and ethnographic research, this is an entertaining and illuminating read that will be invaluable to students and scholars working across a variety of disciplines, including performance studies, the social sciences, cultural studies and politics. New case studies for this edition include: Reverend Billy’s run for Mayor of New York City in 2009; Stephen Colbert’s run for President in 2012; Candidates including Superbarrio, the Best Party, Antanas Mockus, and Einstein the Dog.

Organizing Cools the Planet offers a challenge to all concerned about the ecological crisis: find your frontline. This booklet weaves together stories, analysis, organizing tools, and provocative questions, to offer a snapshot of the North American Climate Justice movement and provide pathways for readers to participate in it. Authors share hard lessons learned, reflect on strategy, and grapple with the challenges of their roles as organizers who do not come from “frontline communities” but work to build a movement big enough for everyone and led by the priorities and solutions of low-income people, communities of color, Indigenous, youth, and other constituencies most directly impacted by the crisis. Rooted in the authors’ experiences organizing in local, national, and international arenas, they challenge readers to look at the scale of ecological collapse with open eyes, without falling prey to disempowering doomsday narratives. This booklet is for anyone who wants to build a movement with the resiliency to navigate one of the most rapid transitions in human history.

“For my parents and grandparents, Jewish identity, in religion, culture and language, was a given. Not so for me. I’m not religious, not a Zionist, so in what consists my Jewishness? Is a love of chopped liver and a belief that chicken soup cures all ills enough? And does it matter? This is the story of my search for answers. It is an argument with myself, with song lyrics to embellish the argument.” Like so many of those others in Britain of Jewish lineage, songwriter and award-winning folk singer Leon Rosselson is descended from antecedents who fled pogroms in eastern Europe. Pertinently, he questions what being a Jew means—is it adherence to Judaism as a religion, an ethnicity, a citizen of Israel, or someone who eats “chicken soup with knedlach”? He describes clearly and with historical insight how any concept of “Jewishness” can involve all of those things and more. In his own life, he has decided to pick and choose from this tradition and history and build on what he deems to be the progressive, humane, and universalist values of that Jewish background. Rosselson is a strong supporter of Palestinian rights, seeing in the victimization of Palestinians by the state of Israel parallels with historical Jewish persecution. He concludes this short essay by stating: “I share with the growing number of Jews in the diaspora who place solidarity with the oppressed above demands of tribalism and with those in Israel who dare to stand against the powers that be.”

This collection documents and examines political and protest theatre produced between the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and Obama’s election in 2008 by British and American artists responding to their own governments’ actions and policies during this time. The plays take up topics such as the ongoing wars on terror, Blair’s support of U.S. policies, the flawed intelligence that led to the Iraq war, and illegal detentions and torture at Abu Ghraib. The authors argue that engaged artists faced a radically different sociopolitical context for their work after 9/11 compared to earlier social protest movements and new forms of theatre, and different emotional strategies were necessary to meet the challenges. The subtitle Patriotic Dissent suggests the double stance of many artists-- influenced by patriotic expressions of national solidarity, yet critical of the ways that patriotic language was put to use against others. The articles represent a broad range of theatre: Broadway musicals, documentary theatre, adaptations of classical theatre, new plays by British playwrights, street performances and installations, and musical concerts. The contributors’ case studies evaluate the effectiveness of important instances of political theatre and protest from this decade, arguing for the significance, relevance, and continuing necessity for evolving forms of political theatre today.