Graduation Term

2018

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

School of Theatre and Dance: Theatre

Committee Chair

Ann Haugo

Committee Member

Michael J. Vetere III

Abstract

In his Foreword for Theatre and Migration (Cox 2014), director Peter Sellars writes, “None of us are the picture in our passports” (viii). Neither are we the person that we look or sound like at first glance or the first meeting. Rather, who we are is shaped by among other factors our environment and cultural upbringing. Because traditionally people from different places perform and participate in social and cultural events that are naturally “scripted” differently, we are so much more than the pictures and names we carry on our identification documents. Migration, Sellars continues, is “one of the most basic human yearnings, one of the most basic ways in which human beings complete themselves, one of the most basic ways worlds open, eyes open, and hearts open” (ix). Globally, theatre and performance explores the human condition and challenges the participants – artists and audience members alike – to recognize and think critically about their role in creating safe spaces for equal and mutual co-existence. In my research, I examine multicultural social performances using a theatre process that encourages and recognizes participants’ ideas and experiences. This process creates open spaces for everyone to tell their story and be who they are with pride and authority while learning and unlearning about each other and takes as its goal the creation of new shared communities, first in theatre and possibly out into our waking lives.

KEYWORDS: Interculturalism; Migration and Immigration; Multiculturalism; Multicultural Theatre, Participatory Theatre, Social Performances

Access Type

Thesis-Open Access

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2019.Nalubowa.A

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