In Process: Perspectives on collaborative theatre in Brazil

Aleksandar Dundjerovic, Professor of Performing Arts

I will present material from my second book, coming out in mid-2018, on collaborative theatre in Brazil. The material presented offers different perspectives on collaborative, visual and physical performing arts practices in Brazilian theatre. The book is focused on creative methodologies and processes from an interdisciplinary approach to theatre making. For performance scholarship, the necessity of developing greater understanding of collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to theatre seems clear because performance practitioners often claim that these processes play an important role, especially within the context of globalization with polycultural and artistic influences.

The work in this edited volume engages with the contemporaneity of performance in Brazil, which can be situated from 1978 with the performance of Macunaíma – adapted and directed by Antunes Filho – which launched contemporary Brazilian theatre. The case studies in this volume highlight a crosssection of different forms of practices that coexist simultaneously: from textual theatre, performance art, dance and physical theatre, to image theatre, installation and multimedia. The book consists of essays, reflection, overview, and an interview that set the context of contemporary Brazilian interdisciplinary collaborative theatre practices in relation to the process and context of directors and group work. There are some topics presented that acquire special relevance in the definition of a Brazilian theatrical identity; performance art, translation, group theatre, theatricality, anthropophagy and observation on practice in community, collaborative and visual/physical.

In Process engages with basic practical questions: what is interdisciplinary collaborative theatre practice and why is it established in Brazil as an important way of theatre making? What cultural and political forces shape creative process in collaborative theatre in 21st century Brazil? What is the relevance of street and community performance in the configuration of Brazilian theatre? In what ways is Brazilian identity best represented through collaborative performance practices?