I suspect that for many of you the first response you had after watching Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot was, “what the heck did I just watch?” I suspect that many of you found Anna Deveare Smith’s work interesting/entertaining, but may have not know what to do with what you saw.

Trust me, there is a lot going on there. There are tons of ways to look at them, but I’d like to introduce the idea of Theater as activism. Both of these artists had something to say.

On your own, do a little (brief google searching will be all you need) research into Beckett’s play as related to his experience in the French Resistance during WWII and war in general. Do the same thing with Anna Deveare Smith and journalistic theater.

Then, write a 500word response to how the stage in particular, or performance in general may be uniquely useful/powerful in educating, informing, and provoking political/social ideas.