This book is a collection of chapters by playwrights, directors, devisers, scholars, and educators whose praxis involves representing, theorizing, and performing social trauma.
Chapters explore how psychic catastrophes and ruptures are often embedded in social systems of oppression and forged in zones of conflict within and across national borders. Through multiple lenses and diverse approaches, the authors examine the connections between collective trauma, social identity, and personal struggle. We look at the generational transmission of trauma, socially induced pathologies, and societal re-inscriptions of trauma, from mass incarceration to war-induced psychoses, from gendered violence through racist practices. Collective trauma may shape, protect, and preserve group identity, promoting a sense of cohesion and meaning, even as it shakes individuals through pain. Engaging with communities under significant stress through artistic practice offers a path towards reconstructing the meaning(s) of social trauma, making sense of the past, understanding the present, and re-visioning the future.
The chapters combine theoretical and practical work, exploring the conceptual foundations and the artists’ processes as they interrogate the intersections of personal grief and communal mourning, through drama, poetry, and embodied performance.
List of Contributors Acknowledgements PART I Introduction 1. Theatre and Social Trauma: Introduction and Overview Ellen W. Kaplan 2. The Story Before the Script: Documenting and testifying to trauma histories of incarcerated persons Julie Kriegler PART II Exiles: Loss of Language, Loss of Home 3. Weaving Personal Trauma in Video Opera “THE WArDROBE”: Transdisciplinarity and Womanhood Nerina Cocchi 4. Lampedusa Beach: A Voice from the Depths of the Sea Anna Botta 5. Interview with playwright Lina Prosa Anna Botta and Nerina Cocchi 6. The Theater of Arístides Vargas: Antidote Against Death María Estela Harretche 7. Bearing Witness to the “Unspeakable”? Poetry writing in the aftermath of the Êzîdî Genocide Mairead Smith PART III Theatre Companies Wrestle with Social Trauma 8. A Serpent’s Tale: The Work of El Teatro Indigena de la Sierra Tarahumara Gabriel Harrell 9. Witness Theater: The Power of Embodied Storytelling Sally Grazi-Shatzkes 10. Resistance: Theatre as Protest and Reckoning Jean-Remy Monnay 11. Life Suspended: Theatre as Social Practice in Afghanistan Abdul-Hakim Hashemi Hamidi 12. Contemporary Kenyan Theatre as a Response to the Traumas of Colonialism Aroji Otieno 13. Community as Theatre: Shakespeare Festival in St. Louis and Community Partnerships Mariah L. Richardson 14. Interviews with Dominic Dupont and Marjolaine Goldsmith of Theater of War Ellen W. Kaplan 15. Trauma and Morality in Classical Greek Drama: Trauma and Authentic Accountability Before the Christian Era Len Berkman PART IV Processes of Embodiment 16. Interview with Carol Gilligan Ellen W. Kaplan 17. Interview with Trenda Loftin Ellen W. Kaplan 18. Pedagogies of Embodied Healing: Devised Theatre and Reciprocal Empathy Zoe Rose Kriegler-Wenk PART V Closing the Gaps: Social Trauma and Text 19. Empathy, Imagination, and Embodiment: Turning Document into Fiction Alex Poppe 20. Calls to Action: Collaboration across Difference Catherine Filloux 21. AFTERWORD Ellen W. Kaplan Index
Ellen W. Kaplan is Professor of Acting and Directing at Smith College, a Fulbright Scholar, Fulbright Senior Specialist, an actress, director, and playwright.
