theological writing

“This is Father Berrigan Speaking from the Underground”:

Daniel Berrigan SJ and the Conception of a Radical Theatre

Article on the late Jesuit and poet’s writing further to his theatre play about his trial, occasioned by his activism with the Catonsville 9. I argue that Berrigan aspired to a vastly different theatre to the type that typified this moment – he was especially down on The Living Theatre – in order to spread the anti-war message, channelling the crisis-inducing voices of those unable to speak. And this was in the context of a profound theological upheaval that arose between America’s rapacious foreign policy and the growing social sensibilities of Roman Catholics. Berrigan was writing about his conception of theatre while on the run from the FBI, during which time he also offered himself as chaplain to the Weather Underground.

This article was accepted and edited by the legendary Richard Schechner, one of the founders of Performance Studies, and was published in the seminal journal TDR: The Drama Review, 62:1, in Summer 2018: https://direct.mit.edu/dram/article/62/2%20(238)/97/8957/This-Is-Father-Berrigan-Speaking-from-the?searchresult=1

PDF of the article (now open access): Berrigan article open access

“As if from the sky”:

Divine and Secular Dramaturgies of Noise

The Sacred and Profane