Will Act for Change?: Putting the History Back Into Performance History
Abstract
: 255-269 WILL ACT FOR CHANGE? PUTTING THE HISTORY BACK INTO PERFORMANCE HISTORY GONDA VAN STEEN, RESPONDENT The classics can console. But not enough. (Derek Walcott, Sea Grapes) It is an honor to be asked to respond to a set of thought-provoking articles on the subject of "Performing Ideology," and thus to make a small contribution to the hard work that has gone into collecting, presenting, revising, and editing these papers. My gratitude goes to all of those who played a formative role in the long and intense process of producing this issue, and also to the many participants in the APA/CAMP Three-Year Colloquium, "Performing Ideology: Classicism, Modernity, and Social Context," who helped to shape the panels through their participation, questions, and reactions. The theme of the colloquium's first panel, "Classical Drama as Political Drama," made "performing ideology" specific. Clearly, the theme was not set up to be a simple definition, nor was it intended as an equation, of classical drama being political drama. Rather, it was a suggestion meant to invite multiple responses. The selected panelists have delivered just that: multiplicity, from Aeschylus to Theodorakis, from Hecuba to Lysistrata, and from the crowded London playhouse to the