Drawing a circle in the square : street performing in New York's Washington Square Park /

This modest, circumscribed yet fascinating analysis of street performers is an excellent complement to earlier, more broadly based overviews, especially Patricia J. Campbell's Passing the Hat (1981). Although Harrison-Pepper provides a brief general survey of this phenomenon over the past several decades in several US cites and relates it to urban culture in broad terms, her focus is on Washington Square Park in New York City over a four-year period (1980-84). Within these parameters she provides an analysis (with specific case studies and detailed commentaries on audience flow patterns and performance spaces within the larger park area) that challenges the reader to reconsider street performance and its role in the urban landscape. For methodology she utilizes various interdisciplinary fields: folklore, semiotics, anthropology, urban studies, sociology, performance studies. Initiated as a NYU dissertation in performance studies, Harrison-Pepper's study never loses sight of the joy and sheer ability of the best of street performers. Lively verbal reconstructions are included, illustrated by photographs (including shots of the park from above to demonstrate performance/audience patterns). Recommended for all large undergraduate libraries as well as graduate collections. D. B. Wilmeth Brown University