The Theater of Politics

How much do politics and theater have in common? The stage has long been a place for social critique of political ideologies. And when a politician says something unexpected these days, we call it “going off-script,” reflecting the highly-produced quality of politics. Host Frank Stasio talks with Peter Burian, a professor of classical studies and theater studies at Duke University; Jules Odendahl-James, the resident dramaturg, visiting lecturer, and Coordinating Director of the Performance and Embodied Research Colloquium at Duke University; Geoffrey Baym, associate professor of Media Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Michael Cobb, associate professor of political science at North Carolina State University; Jonathan Fitts, a member of the Burning Coal Theatre and coordinator of the PoliTheatrics Festival; and Olivia Lemmon and Alexis Floyd, two actors in the PoliTheatrics production of "Blackout."