Cross-Cultural Theater and Geopolitical Trauma

Even in the wake of peace accords, treaties, and ceasefires, conflict must be acknowledged as ongoing, and hatreds understood if we can hope to prevent cycles of violence from recurring. In rehearsal, nothing can be swept under the rug, nothing can be denied, and everything must be on the table. Actors cannot compromise; they must be able to rehearse something they do not believe, and be willing to adopt an identity and explore it before accepting, denying it, or finding something new to replace it.

The productions that emerge from this process, forged out of performers’ memories, multiple truths, and conflicting narratives, are necessarily messy. Yet within this messiness we find substance and sustenance, a core of vital meaning that we otherwise may never have discovered. When we take each of these productions on the road—to other areas emerging from violent conflict or struggling to address histories of racial, economic, ethnic, and religious oppression—it is also this messiness that allows audience members from vastly different backgrounds to find a piece of themselves in the production. The work becomes a mirror; opening up a space for dialogue in the talkbacks and workshops we organize after the performances for audience members who most need to hear each other.