The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents Book Talk: The Art of Assembly—Political Theatre Today livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Thursday 4 May 2023 at 9:30 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11:30 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12:30 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

Join us for a Zoom Talk with author and curator Florian Malzacher to discuss the upcoming Segal Center publication The Art of Assembly— Political Theatre Today.

The Art of Assembly surveys theatre today to demonstrate its political potential in both form and content. Drawing on numerous examples from around the world in performance, visual arts, and activist art, curator and author Florian Malzacher examines works that draw on the particular possibilities of theatre to navigate the space between representation and participation, at once playfully and with sincerity. In a time of wide-ranging crisis, The Art of Assembly is a plea for a strong definition of the political and for a theatre that is not content merely to reflect the world’s ills, but instead acts to change them.

Florian Malzacher is a curator, writer, and dramaturg, as well as the host of The Art of Assembly, a series of talks about the potential of gathering in art, activism, and politics (since 2021). His current projects include Training for the Future (with Jonas Staal). He was artistic director of Impulse Theater Festival in Cologne, Dusseldorf and Mulheim/Ruhr (2013-2017), and co-curator of the multidisciplinary arts festival steirischer herbst in Graz/Austria (2006-2012). He is (co)author and (co)editor of numerous publications on contemporary theatre, curating performing arts and the relationship between art and politics. His texts have been translated into 15 languages.