Diggers (theater)

The Diggers
Formation1966 (1966)
FoundersEmmett Grogan
Peter Coyote
Peter Berg
Billy Landout
Dissolved1968 (1968)
TypeCommunity-action group
PurposeTo create a mini-society free of money and capitalism
HeadquartersHaight-Ashbury, San Francisco, California, U.S.
Region served
San Francisco; California
Services
  • Free music concerts
  • Works of political art
  • Free food
  • Medical care
  • Transport
  • Temporary housing
  • Free Stores
  • happenings: Death of Money Parade, Intersection Game, Invisible Circus, Death of Hippie/Birth of Free
PublicationThe Digger Papers
Websitewww.diggers.org

The Diggers were a radical community-action group of activists and street theatre actors operating from 1966 to 1968, based in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Their politics have been categorized as "left-wing;" more accurately, they were "community anarchists" who blended a desire for freedom with a consciousness of the community in which they lived.[1] The Diggers' central tenet was to be "authentic," seeking to create a society free from the dictates of money and capitalism.[2][3]

The Diggers were closely associated and shared a number of members with the guerrilla theater group San Francisco Mime Troupe. They were formed out of after-hours Mime Troupe discussions between Emmett Grogan, Peter Coyote, Peter Berg, and Billy Landout.[4]

The Diggers fostered and inspired later groups like the Yippies.

  1. ^ Contemporary Authors Online (2002) Gale, Detroit
  2. ^ "The Diggers Mystique". San Francisco Chronicle. 23 January 1967 – via International Times.
  3. ^ Gail Dolgin; Vicente Franco (2007). American Experience: The Summer of Love. PBS. Archived from the original on 2017-03-25. Retrieved 2007-04-23.
  4. ^ Grogan, Emmett (1972). Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps. Little, Brown.

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