ABSTRACT
Little Society is the most play from the most important avant-garde theater troupe in Shanghai—Grass Stage/Cao Taliban. Founded in early 2005, the director Zhao Chuan decided to make Grass Stage an amateur-only group. The great majority of Grass Stage's 200 or so members have lacked any experience in the arts before joining the troupe. The generative praxis of Grass Stage has resulted in several independent productions by members, one which was banned by the Shanghai authorities. The emphasis on individualism and private expression in the early performing arts avant-garde is crucial to keep in mind when thinking about Grass Stage. Grass Stage limits membership to people without formal training in the performing arts. The feedback and feedforward between the world of socio-politics and personal embodied expression impels a different configuration of the "art and politics" binary.
