Stuart Sherman in ‘Eleventh Spectacle’ (1978)

Photograph by Babette Mangolte

Sherman’s “spectacles” were programs of very short plays performed on portable tabletops propped open on the sidewalk—or in the park, or someone’s apartment—in which he would physically manipulate and create semantic “dramas” around inanimate objects. He created and performed eighteen “spectacles” in all (12 solo and 6 group performances).