Guerilla Theatre

Guerilla Theatre (or Guerilla Theater) is an alternative theatrical form

The concept

Henry Lesnick (1973) has broadly defined this theatrical form as "a radical political theater performed in the streets, in the schools, in shopping centers, outside plant gate - anywhere people gather." Though it apparently emerged strongly in the United States in the wake of the McCarthyist era in American politics and culture, it has has in fact also manifested itself in various ways across the ages and across the globe - though rarely under that name.

Often simply a version of what is widely known as Street Theatre, the form is sometimes also referred to as Guerilla Street Theatre or, in America, Guerilla Street Theater.

Among the many essays on influential American practitioners of the guerilla theater principle included in Lessick's valuable 1973 collection, are discussions of the work of El Teatro Campesino, Bread and Puppet Theater, Rapid Transport Guerilla Communication Chicago), San Francisco Red Theater, The American Playground, San Francisco Women's Theater, Burning City Theater (New York) and San Francisco Mime Troupe.