ABSTRACT
This book is about engaging performance, in two senses of the word. The one is as a verb, to engage, referring to the act of choosing performance to respond to social controversies. The other is as an adjective, and describes the compelling expressive potential of performance that draws on a broad range of people involved in the social situation in question. Such collaborators encompass those who contribute both through the authority of their lived experience and by virtue of particular professional expertise – the person with a loved one incarcerated or the prison guard, as well as the community organizer able to translate insights about the criminal justice system into political action.
