The Design layout for City Scale shows how the creators desired to showcase the beauty of everyday life. (Click on Image for full-size) 

(Schechner, M., Schechner, F. Tutalane Drama Review. (Tutalane University, 1965), 185.)

 

 

The beatniks used the theater as a means for celebrating and understandnig the beauty of everyday life. Beatniks celebrated authenticity throughout their poetry, artwork, and performances. Throughout the Beat Movement, plays addressed problems and issues that society faced around them. Much like the visual art and literature in the Beat Movement, the beatniks used taboo language and topics in their theatrical performances, which both challenged society, and gave the audience a new perspecitve with regards to the world in which they live.  

Throughout the Beat Movement, many Beatniks believed that rather than sticking to the classical methods, dance should transition to a modern form of art. 

 (Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, ArtBkRm BeatMAG PS1.K853 no. 1. Spring 1960.)

Similarly to how beatniks desired the theater to connect performers and audience members, beatniks also believed that the art of dance should create a connection between the dancers and the audience. Throughout the Beat Movement, there was a push for the art of dance to challenge composers to create more contemperorary, modern music. By creating more modern and contemporary music, audience members would have a greater ability to connect with and relate to the performance.

In Kulchur, a popular magazine among beatniks, Erik Hawkins further describes the idea of shifting dance from just a performance to an experience by stating that dance should be "an art worthy of being experienced, watched, and understood and appreciated, discussed and criticized."[1] One celebrity that beatniks celebrated for his creativity and his divegence from social norms was Ernie Kovac. Donald Phelps describes Ernie Kovac's rendition of Swan Lake, where Kovac replaces the ballerinas with gorillas, as a beatiful form art which drifts from societal norms. While most of society would describe the video as silly, or funny, Phelps describes the performance as "lovely."[2]