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| "From the instant
a child is born, culture formally and informally teaches it how to
behave in a manner that is acceptable to adults and that garners them
rewards. Therefore, there is no need for members of a culture to expend
energy deciding what each event means or how to respond to it; usually,
all those who share a common culture can be expected to behave correctly,
automatically and predictably. Hence, culture shields people from
the unknown by offering them a blueprint for all life's activities."
-- Samovar & Porter, Communication Across Cultures Brian Shapiro's CultureWorks is an innovative educational performance group that makes academic concepts about culture accessible to general audiences. In collaboration with actors, dancers, musicians, and other artists, CultureWorks generates and presents highly entertaining, intellectually stimulating, and aesthetically diverse original interdisciplinary performances to demonstrate cultureís role in everyday life. In 1999, inspired by the writing of anthropologist Edward T. Hall, religious scholar Huston Smith, and the late ethnobotanist Terence McKenna, Brian Shapiro founded CultureWorks. Through theatre, dance, music, video, humor, and satire, CultureWorks creatively investigates how culture influences human perception and behavior. By humorously demonstrating how culture shapes everyday life experience, audience members can develop a better understanding of how and why misunderstandings occur, perhaps leading to a more empathetic and compassionate populace. CultureWorks has performed and collaborated with artists in New York City, Austin, and San Francisco. CultureWorks performances have been produced by The Field, Dixon Place, and The Bridge in New York, The Vortex Rep in Austin, and Mary Sano Studio in San Francisco. Culture is more than a holiday, an identity, a religion, a style of dress, music, food, drink, or dance. Culture is a highly penetrative process that teaches while it reinforces, reinforces while it excludes, excludes while it accentuates. In short, Culture Works! Past productions include The Institute for Relativity Studies (2003-2004), The Sun Rises in the East (2002), The Manifestation of Beauty (2001), What is Choice? (2001), Forgiveness (2000), Play Mas: Carnival Americano (2000), And You Come From Where (1999), and Me, We (1999). |
