The relationship between community-based performance and the academy has long beentenuous. Recently, an increase in publication and writing on community-based performance has indicated a growing respect for that field as a location for scholarly study and analysis. In order to understand what successful scholarship in this field looks like, this study looks at three recent and diverse publications on community-based performance.
In Chapter 1, I begin with Sonja Kuftinec's Staging America, a close scholarly study of the community-based performance company Cornerstone. I examine her work for how she justifies and positions the scholar's presence. Next, in Chapter 2, I engage with Performing Communities, a survey of eight companies written by Robert H. Leonard and Anne Kilkelly, in order to discuss the scholars' responsibilities in critiquing community-based performance. Then, in Chapter 3, I explore Petra Kuppers' textbook Community Performance, and I examine the ways in which it models instruction for community-based performance within the academy.
Finally, in my Conclusion, I read across these texts, summarizing the pitfalls and
successes that can inform scholars in future attempts to write about community-based performance from a scholarly perspective.