ABSTRACT Title of Document: THE PERFORMANCE CULTURE OF BURNING MAN Wendy Ann Clupper, PhD, 2007 Directed By: Dr. Franklin J. Hildy, Department of Theatre and Performance Studies Theatre in the United States for the last twenty years has been evolving in scope by way of a cultural phenomenon known as Burning Man. In 2006, this festival attracted over forty thousand participants to the Black Rock Desert in Northwestern Nevada to a flat dusty Playa surrounded by mountain ranges. While the natural environment there is hostile, the creative atmosphere is welcoming and invites a broad scope of performative behaviors and genres to be exhibited there, the entire week the festival takes place. Make-shift stages and theme camps, as well as large- scale interactive art pieces play host to participants who dress up in fanciful costumes to perform in all manner of imagining. This dissertation maps out the cultural terrain of Burning Man in order to explain how performing there is form of identity-making and cultural commodity. As one of a handful of North American festivals which expressly discourage commercialism and commodification, theatricality takes the place of significance for entertainment and communication. Performance forms of all kinds historically are represented at Burning Man and this dissertation will investigate and theorize how a new performance culture has emerged from the festival itself and by its presence as a theatrical event, has exposed and expanded performance and theatre forms. This dissertation offers a critical framework through which to consider performance and performers within the Burning Man community as applied to Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of Carnival and the Schema for Theatrical Eventness proposed by the International Federation for Theatre Research Theatrical Events Working Group. The theories of Victor Turner, Baz Kershaw, and Michel Foucault are also presented in this dissertation to consider how performance occurs at Burning Man. Whether informal and spontaneous, interactive performing or rehearsed, staged formal performance, Burning Man provides an exciting lens through which to consider how new performance genres are emerging in a large-scale outdoor festival setting at the beginning of the twenty-first century in North America. THE PERFORMANCE CULTURE OF BURNING MAN By Wendy Clupper Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 Advisory Committee: Dr. Franklin J. Hildy, Chair Dr. Heather S. Nathans Dr. Faedra C. Carpenter Dr. Susan C. Haedicke Dr. Holly Hughes Dr. Trevor Parry-Giles © Copyright by Wendy Clupper 2007 Preface I first heard about Burning Man in 1997 when I was living in New York City and going to New York University. An artist I knew, Steel Neal, invited me to his studio and showed me what he has been working on recently. It was a giant metal man, on his knees, screaming up at the sky. It was called the Future Primitive and he was taking to the desert. I had never seen anything like it before in terms of scale or workmanship. It was to be my introduction to Burning Man. Two years later, I too was in the Nevada desert. Nothing in my life has opened me up to creative possibilities quite like Burning Man. It is another realm made by people responding to the present state of our world and cultures. Every year I have been to the desert since, I am overcome with emotion for how important this thoughtful, imaginary, temporary city is to me. Burning Man has not made me who I am but it has helped me to become who I have always known I am. Perhaps that is why it is so often referred to as a utopian vision for today. We who continue to attend Burning Man year after year, go into the desert to get away and there to become whoever we want to be and are. Here there are no spectators, everyone participates… The freedom to be yourself or anything you want to be, this is why we as people play and why we do theatre -to be inspired, transform and grow as human beings. To step outside of our constructed social selves and our manufactured urban environments is a challenge -and a privilege. For those, like me, who crave that other place to play in with each other, it is what we have been waiting to get back to since childhood. Our costumes, toys, stories, games, parades, parties, fashion shows, ii singing and dancing. It is both very old and totally new. It is the future primitive. It is a stage upon which some belong, upon which I know I belong. Burning Man to me makes everything imagined seem possible. iii Foreword “The performance culture of Burning Man is so wide-spread and dynamic. The spectrum is huge, just like the inhabitants of Black Rock City. Fire dancers and public self mutilators and bicycle punksters and hippy sitar junkies and fairy roller derby dance queens. They may all be from completely different cultures, and have completely different opinions and beliefs. But they all make up the immensely diverse culture of Burning Man. I don't think I would put them all in the same camp for a week, but I would hate to see what the playa was like without their presence and contributions. All performers tend to understand the challenges other performers are going through. We understand that if something goes wrong, it is to be laughed off. We can't always understand each other's art, but we do understand what it takes to get out there and what it means to express it.” -Patrick Kaliski, Longtime Burning Man Performer Thursday, March 15, 2007 via Email to the author iv Dedication To my mother, Dr. Beatrice B. Clupper, to my father, Darwin D. Clupper Jr., Esq., and to my brother, Darwin D. Clupper III, Esq. To Ari Schnitzer, thank you for all you have done to support and help me. Thank you especially for your edits and assistance throughout this dissertation process. To my friends, Melissa McMaster, Jessica Hobbs, Stacy Dumas, Bethany Wells, Nadja Masura & Peter Rogers, and my extended family – thank you. v Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the presence in the world of the phenomenon that is Burning Man. The people who I have come to know and love that are members of this community have taught me how important it is to be yourself and never let go of your dreams despite your status as an adult. Mr. Larry Harvey, Maid Marian, Harley DuBois, Crimson Rose and Lady Bee have all been important people for me to work with on this project and inspirational in their accomplishments as doers. Andie “Actiongrrl” Grace and Jessica “Nurse” Bobier have been great friends in their assisting me in my work. To all of the members of the Burning Man community in San Francisco, especially Jessica “Jess Bunny” Hobbs, an amazing artist and friend, and Brandi “Bunny” and Gina “Bunny” – my very first friends at Burning Man. To the San Luis Obispo Burners, especially Dr. D. Gregg Doyle – who took me to my first Burning Man – and all of the folks in Black Rock University. Go Fighting Dust Flamingos! At the University of Maryland at College Park, Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, there have been many people who have helped my growth as a graduate student and in particular, my work on this project, especially my faculty advisor Dr. Franklin J. Hildy, and all of my Dissertation Committee. Dr. Susan C. Haedicke, who served as my advisor for three years, has provided me with much support and encouragement and for that I am very grateful. To each of the students and colleagues I worked with in classes whose good advice pushed my thinking. And to the Administrative Staff in my department who have been very patient with and vi helpful to me as long as I have been a student here: Ms. Sandra Jackson and Ms. Rita Phelps. vii Table of Contents Preface ii Foreword iv Dedication v Acknowledgements vi Table of Contents viii List of Illustrations ix Introduction: Burning Man Culture, Its Politics and the Carnivalesque 1 Chapter One: The History and Background of Burning Man 36 Chapter Two: Performance at Burning Man & Spontaneous Interactive Theatre 77 Chapter Three: Burners: The Participant as Performer 142 Chapter Four: Burning Man as Performance Culture 193 Conclusion: Burning Man as a Lens for American Culture 225 Appendices Appendix A: Performance Listings 239 Appendix B: Performers Questionnaire 359 Appendix C: DVD of Performances 400 Appendix D: CD of Websites 402 Appendix E: Off Planet Theatre Announcement 403 Bibliography 410 viii List of Illustrations Introduction Image 1: Burning Man 2000, Aerial 1 1 Graph 1: Participants at Burning Man 3 Image 2: Ken Tea Ceremony 14 Image 3: Burning Man Drag Performers 35 Image 4: The Megavolt Show Stage 35 Chapter One Image 5: Arrival at Baker Beach 36 Image 6: Assembling the Man on Baker Beach 38 Image 7: Aftermath 41 Image 8: Raising the Man 47 Figure 1: 2006 Grid Map of Black Rock City 51 Map 1: Map of the Burning Man Regional Network 69 Chapter Two Image 9: Mistress Megavolt, Jessica Hobbs 2006 77 Image 10: Thunderdome Fight Dome 94 Image 11: The Lab Theater at Burning Man 2006 100 Image 12: Center Camp Music Stage 102 Image 13: Business Suits at Burning Man 104 Image 14: Burning Man: The Musical! 108 Image 15: BRU Cheerleaders Perform 111 Image 16: The Cockroach Theater 112 Image 17: Full Moon (Aug 30, 2004) over the Man in Neon 120 Image 18: Theater at the Man 122 Image 19: Theater at the Man 2 124 Image 20: The Doctor is In 139 Chapter Three Image 21: Colored People 142 Image 22: Procession