Theater as Community Praxis in the Eastern Mediterranean

(4 Credits)

How does theatre practice work as a dialogue generator, as a means for reflection, as a mechanism of awareness-raising and empathy between and among communities? The course proposes an interdisciplinary approach to theatre, starting from the page and extending to the stage, the street and the home of the spectator, as a complete artistic praxis. Looking at case studies from Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine, we will ask: How have communities, conflicts, and ideologies emerged from (post-)colonialism and the formation of the nation-state? How has the long history of mobility (of populations, ideas and languages) in this region shaped the mobility of narratives? How have the contested-ness and tensions of physical spaces, whether populated or lying abandoned, such as buffer zones, shaped communities and their stories? We turn to the methodologies of collaborative and community-based creation, using a workshop process to explore Theatre of the Oppressed, Sited Performance, contemporary Commedia dell'Arte, among others.