Post #3: Amiri Baraka's Revolutionary Theatre

Amiri Baraka's Revolutionary Theatre

Amiri Baraka was a playwright and poet who was heavily engaged in the bohemian counterculture of late 1960s Harlem.  His work is incendiary, controversial, and heavily political.  This passage from the above article caught my eye:

To fulfill the goals of the Revolutionary Theatre, Baraka borrowed from and utilized the efficacy of customary African rituals and sacrifice. His confidence in ritual evolved around his nationalistic “return” to ancestral precepts. In preserving this sacred worldview, his Revolutionary Theatre adopted a rite-of-passage structure that thrived on violence and sacrificial rebirth. In part, therefore, Baraka presented Black drama as an extension of the oral traditions of Africa, and as a genre rooted  in specific Africansensibilities. The importance of exploiting African ritual and dramatic forms was twofold for Baraka; his plays threatened the oppressor while entering into the  rediscovery of his heritage.

I'm heavily interested in traditional forms of ritual and how they preceded and anticipated our current theatrical forms.  The rite-of-passage, or initiation, still exists in our modern religions (the Catholic confirmation, the evangelical "born again" choice, the Bar Mitzvah, the Quinceanera), while other cultural traditions act in a similar manner (in America, these have to do with sex, drugs, music, and fast driving).

How can a theatrical experience challenge the audience in such a way that they actually undergo some kind of spiritual crisis and catharsis?  A radical reframing of the human condition can be achieved in a number of different storytelling forms- whether they are mythical or contemporary, good stories should challenge our preconceptions and reorient our perspectives.  But I'm curious how modern, cutting-edge techniques (surround sound, strobe lights, elaborate costumes, projections) can contribute to a multisensory experience that resembles a coming of age rite.