Documents Bureau exploits our familiarity with bureaucracy and turns it into an opportunity for creativity and play. A cast of performers embodying office workers collaborates with the public to produce official-looking documents that attest to all the small, personal, and mundane goings-on of daily life. Documents Bureau is a playful, critical arena for questioning our daily interactions.

Participants’ universal experiences with daily business transactions become a lingua franca for improvisation and enable instances of the carnivalesque (Bakhtin) such as role reversals and exchanges between unlikely people. Typical forms—certificates, licenses, and affidavits—serve as vehicles for warm, interpersonal, meaningful exchanges.

Contributors

Many people have contributed to this project; this is a partial list: Kevin L. Burrows (aka the Mayor of Bucktown), Lissette Bustamante, Will Clinger, Perry Cowdery, Caitlin Devitt, Paul Durica, Nick Eliopulos, Nando Espinosa Herrera, Marlise Fratinardo, Bryant Godinez, Elliott Godinez, Rafael Godinez, Gretel Garcia, Jack Gruszczynski, Marcos Herrera, Charlotte Kuliak, Marianne Joyce, Allison Kelly, Henry Harris, Noel Jones, Bill Kirby (aka Captain Chicago), Karolina Kowalkczyk, Dud Lawson, Patrick McGee, Jeff Michalski, Chris Molina, Annie Morse, Jorge Mujica, Daniela Perez, Ulises Rangel, Sabina Rangel, Matt Robinson, Victoria Rodriguez, Kat Seno, Matt Stone, and Keith Watson.