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Jan Cohen-Cruz

Jan Cohen-Cruz is editor of Public: A Journal of Imagining America. She directed Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (2007-12), and for 28 years before that, was a professor at NYU, directing a minor in applied theatre and initiating socially-engaged projects and courses. She wrote Engaging Performance: Theatre as Call and Response and Local Acts: Community‑Based Performance in the US. She edited Radical Street Performance and co‑edited Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy, Activism and A Boal Companion. Jan is a University Professor at Syracuse University. In 2012, she received the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement.

An art project of composed of quotes pasted onto a large board.
On Theatre, Home, and Housing 
Essay

On Theatre, Home, and Housing 

16 January 2024

Jan Cohen-Cruz delves into the process of bringing The Most Beautiful Home… Maybe, a multi-city project that aims to use art to influence how people think about housing, to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Through this process, Jan saw how theatre can bring together housing advocates from different walks of life to find their commonalities and collectively imagine a world with equitable housing for all.

an outdoor theatre production
Participatory Research Results and Further Questions
Essay

Participatory Research Results and Further Questions

Expanding Where, Why, How, and With Whom Artists Make Work

20 July 2020

Jan Cohen-Cruz shares the results of her recent survey about community-based and socially engaged theatremakers in the United States, which looked at commonalities across the field, the practices and principles adhered to, where people work and with whom, and more.

a person sitting at a large filled-in whiteboard
Expanding Where, Why, How, and With Whom Artists in the United States Work
Essay

Expanding Where, Why, How, and With Whom Artists in the United States Work

Invitation for Participatory Research

6 May 2020

Jan Cohen-Cruz invites theatremakers working in community-based and socially engaged art in the United States to take part in research about commonalities across the field, the practices and principles adhered to, where people work and with whom, and more.

a group of people stand around a piece of artwork on the floor
Beyond the “Other”
Essay

Beyond the “Other”

Seeking Commonality in a Divided World

31 October 2019

Jan Cohen-Cruz looks at how collaborative art-making can help bridge the divide between groups of people with different identities.

Must you be of a certain political stripe to do community-based theater?
Essay

Must you be of a certain political stripe to do community-based theater?

4 September 2013

Jan Cohen-Cruz responds to Daniel Jones' post: can anyone from any political background produce theater? The answer is yes... if you look at the many different forms that theater can take.