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Abstract

This article examines the performative potentials of solitary individuals watching films together in a grand restored movie palace and how those performances contribute to creating and redefining community as an inclusive human activity. The authors invoke the work of such continental thinkers as Giorgio Agamben, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Jean Baudrillard to see how the shared viewing experience, in all its mystery, can be transported fromthe theatre into the streets of a medium-sized American city and the everyday lives of those who live there. More traditional, exclusive community theory is examined and critiqued as the authors work to identify what Agamben called the “coming community” and see how theatre and performance can help inspire something new—an uncommon commonality.

Keywords

festival community film performance everyday life

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Baring Withness: Community,Performance,and the Uncommon In and Around the Virginia Theatre in Champaign,Illinois

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