Guerilla Theater

Guerrilla Theatre shares its origins with many forms of political protest and street theatre including agitprop (agitation-propaganda), carnival, parades, pageants, political protest, performance art, happenings, and, most notably, the Dada movement and guerrilla art. Although this movement is widely studied in Theatre History classrooms, the amount of research and documentation of “guerrilla theatre” is surprisingly lacking. The term, “Guerrilla Theatre” seems to have emerged during the mid-1960s primarily as an upshot of radical activist theatres such as The Living Theatre, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Bread and Puppet Theatre, El Teatro Campesino, and the Free Southern Theatre. It also shares considerable roots in Allan Kaprow’s happenings. The first widely documented Guerrilla Performances were under the leadership of Abbie Hoffman and the Youth International Party (Yippies). One of their most publicized events occurred on August 24, 1967 at the New York Stock Exchange where Hoffman and other Yippies threw dollar bills to the brokers below. Creating a media frenzy, the event was publicized internationally . In his later publication, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture (1980), Hoffman refers to his television appearances with specially planned subversive tactics as “guerrilla theatre.” Another Guerrilla Performance that helped bring the term to wide acceptance was the Guerrilla Girls. This group of feminist artist/activists was established in New York City in 1985 with the purpose of bringing attention to the lack of female artists in major art galleries and museums. The Guerrilla Girls began their work through guerrilla art tactics which broadened to include guerrilla theatre. Some common practices to their guerrilla theatre techniques that have been replicated by other groups include appearing in costume, using assumed names, and disguising their identity.