Guru Clown, or Pedagogy of the Carnivalesque

Abstract

In 1998, Lee Breuer, theatre director and founder of New York-based Mabou Mines, was awarded an honorary degree from California Institute of the Arts, where I had been employed as full time faculty for eight years. His speech was a resounding warning to the 313 graduates at convocation ceremonies--BFAs and MFAs from the Schools of Dance, Film/Video, Theatre, Writing, Music, and Art--to retain their artistic playfulness and refuse to compromise vision or voice when hazarding the marketplace. He concluded his address with his own playful take on Descartes: "I am entertained," he declared, "therefore I am! I entertain," he continued, "therefore you are!" As the crowd cheered and the business of a rollicking CalArts graduation proceeded, I found myself distracted. Breuer's evocation of entertainment suddenly had provided me with a sorely needed paradigm for understanding what had been a difficult, albeit amusing,experience in a class I had just finished teaching. This paper is a performative attempt to share my experience in that classroom. It is subjective, mischievous, and self-conscious; it is a re-creation that privileges, or at least allows the distortions, fears, and humor that pervade the pedagogical encounter, whether we attend to them or not.

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