Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

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Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Date of Graduation

Spring 2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

School of Theatre and Dance

Advisor(s)

Dennis Beck

Abstract

This undergraduate thesis examines the impact of the process of creating a piece of intercultural theatre on student artists. In the research of intercultural theatre, there is a lack of information on opportunities for intercultural performance experience for students, and much of the major research that has been done has all been by established theatre artists. The biggest concern in the theatrical community with creating works of intercultural theatre is the threat of cultural appropriation and imperialism. Much of this concern is stimulated by belief that the western dominant culture maintains a sense of imperialism towards what is perceived as “foreign,” and can only understand it through appropriation. The dangers of the euro-centric mindset can be both conscious and unconscious, and stunt much of the desire for young artists to explore intercultural theatre. In order to show that students would be positively impacted by the effects of being in an intercultural theatre process, this paper establishes some of the important themes and debates within the academic study of intercultural theatre, and talks about the process of the project and finding that students greatly enjoyed getting to work with a form they had never experienced before. This aided in the creation of greater global understanding, and the prevention of growth of a western-centric mindset.

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