Make the Dream Real

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El Vez performances present a powerful message of social justice and inclusion in changing US and social contextsMake the Dream Real interrogates how artist Robert Lopez playful engagements as El Vez hold the United States to its egalitarian promises, voicing and enacting a just, richly inclusive social space through performance. 34 col. illus. El Vez, also known as the Mexican Elvis, presents a powerful message of social justice and inclusion in his performances. Make the Dream Real interrogates how this message is activated through world-building: the use of a variety of theoretical, theatrical, and musical tactics that bring into being a progressive social space that refutes the current economic, political, social, and cultural configurations of the United States. World-building in an El Vez show immerses the audience in a social space in which equal rights are guaranteed, inclusivity is fostered, difference is valued, and the violence of economic inequality is mitigated. Using a dramaturgical mythology built on critical proximity, Make the Dream Real examines meaning making and world-building through El Vez performances as it honours the creative labour of Robert Lopez as a political artist. Make the Dream Real interrogates how El Vez’s playful engagements hold the United States to its egalitarian promises, voicing and enacting—however fleetingly—a just and richly inclusive social space through performance. Karen Jean Martinson is assistant professor of dramaturgy in the School of Music, Dance, and Theatre at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. El Vez performances present a powerful message of social justice and inclusion in changing US and social contexts. Make the Dream Real interrogates how this message is activated through world-building: the use of a variety of theoretical, theatrical, and musical tactics that bring into being a progressive social space that refutes the current economic, political, social, and cultural configurations of the United States. World-building in an El Vez show “makes the dream real” by imagining a society in which equal rights are guaranteed, inclusivity is fostered, difference is valued, and the violence of economic inequality is mitigated. But, world-building through performance is not content to reside exclusively in the individual imagination or the social imaginary; it temporarily creates this new social space in actual time and space for the audience to experience. Using a dramaturgical methodology, which marries theoretical inquiry to theatrical practice based on dramaturgical thinking, critical proximity, and intellectual flexibility, the book delves into the theoretical foundations that inform artist Robert Lopez’s work, and each chapter analyzes a different performative component he uses. Make the Dream Real interrogates how El Vez’s playful engagements hold the United States to its egalitarian promises, voicing and enacting - however fleetingly - a just and richly inclusive social space through performance.

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Pages: 254, Paperback, Intellect (UK)