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ASSESSMENT FEEDBACK FORM

Student Details:
Surname: Virgilio
First Name: Chiara

Date: 21st April 2020

Unit and Assessment Details:

Unit Title: Contemporary Studies: Performing “race”
Assessment task/ Essay, question n.3:
element: Using TWO examples from case studies, or from your own practice,
discuss how racial and ethnic identities, and their colonial legacies, can
affect approaches to an applied theatre intervention.

General Comments (referring to unit learning outcomes and assessment criteria)

First Marker:

In order to improve your work further, I would encourage you:



Name of first marker:

Agreed Provisional Mark:

Provisional mark:
This essay is honours weighted:

Note:
 this mark is provisional and could be changed following moderation by the Board
of Examiners.
 This mark does not reflect any capping or mark reduction that may be applied for
late submission, retrieving a failed assessment or academic misconduct.
 The International Applied Theatre Project: challenging ethnic and racial
representation through multilingualism.

In the past two years, the years of Brexit and the pandemic of COVID-19, the way racial and ethnic
identities, as well as their colonial legacies, have been represented on stage through Applied Theatre
projects has dramatically changed and evolved. In this essay, I am going to focus on the work of my
project, the International Applied Theatre Project (IATP): a learning community that focuses on
multilingualism and multiculturalism. I will take into analysis the work of the cycle of 2018/2019 and the
show from the cycle of 2019/2020 to compare the evolution of the approaches of the company to adapt
to and compensate the weight of contemporary events. I will begin by explaining the way the Project
was born and the cultural and social context around its first development; to describe the approach of
the cycle 2018-2019, I will focus on the exercises and techniques used during rehearsals and the way
they challenged racial and ethnic identities in the space; finally, to depict the cycle of 2019-2020, I will
talk about the play that was produced by IATP during this period and the reasons why it could not be
staged. My conclusion is a reflection on the narrative demonstrated by this innovative international
applied theatre approach, and the way the structure created by the group managed to bend without
breaking despite the uncertainty of the time.

In order to reflect the project’s aim, I am going to use phrases and expressions in IATP’s members’
mother tongue throughout the essay; an English translation will be available as a footnote, although I
invite the reader to observe and listen to the musicality of a foreign language before trying to
understand the meaning of the words, as this type of listening is a crucial focus point of the work to
respect and represent different ethnic identities and “de-colonise” the stage.

To begin with an introduction of my positionality, necessary as I am going to talk about my practice and
a project I have contributed to create, I will introduce myself: mi chiamo Chiara, sono una studentessa di
Teatro Applicato da Milano, Italia, e due anni fa mi sono trasferita a Londra per frequentare l’università.1
In October 2018, I remember watching Applied Theatre lecturer Selina Busby’s talk at the Re:ACT event
1
(in Italian) “My name is Chiara, I am an Italian student of Applied Theatre from Milan and I moved to London two
years ago to attend University.”
by TedX Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. An inspiring discussion on the importance of Applied
Theatre and the Concrete Utopia described by Selina Busby followed her Ted Talk, and that occasion
allowed me to meet Valentina Rosati (MA Applied Theatre and Criminal Justice System student at the
RCSSD, and Italian director from the top Drama school in Italy). During this discussion, Valentina and I
had the opportunity to reflect on the consequences that a lack of Applied Theatre approaches in the
Italian Drama context could have on the country. Determined to make a change, and find a space to
imagine the possibility of a concrete utopia, we decided together to create a Central’s Italian Society.
Central’s Italian Society aimed to bring the practice and academicism of Applied Theatre to Italy and to
respond to the political situation of our country by “Re:Acting” to it from London. Before I furtherly
describe the development of the society that originated the International Applied Theatre Project and
its relevance on themes of performing “race”, it is useful to briefly explain the political situation in Italy
and the UK, at the time Valentina and I started working together.

In the United Kingdom, in a public vote (known as a referendum) held in June 2016, 17.4 million people
opted for Brexit: the exit of the UK from the EU. Since then, the situation in the country had been
uncertain due to political disagreements until January 2020, when Brexit officially happened.

Two years later in Italy, the 1st of June 2018, Matteo Salvini, representative of the far-right party Lega,
was elected Minister of the Intern. Salvini’s primary objective as Minister in charge was to strictly reduce
immigration in the country, as the presence of different ethnicities, cultures and languages was seen as
a threat to the country.

Valentina and I were not only part of the minority of Italy that believed in the enrichment of our culture
given by the encounter of differences, but we also identified as “migrants” ourselves according to
Oxford’s English Dictionary definition: “Migrant = A person who moves from one place to another,
especially in order to find work or better living conditions” (migrant noun | Oxford Advanced American
Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com, 2020) and International students in London. Therefore,
the first project by Central’s Italian Society aimed to bring internationality on stage, multilingualism and
representation of ethnicities in response to the “international closure” of both our original place of birth
and our current hosting country abroad: the International Applied Theatre Project (IATP) was born.

As explained on IATP site: “(The International Applied Theatre Project) is a diverse learning community
that provides opportunities for its members to experience the potential to imagine change. It is
anchored in a theatrical process that focuses on multilingualism and embodiment.” (The International
Applied Theatre Project, 2020). This definition succeeds in highlighting the project’s aim of giving to the
members the possibility of imagining change, through a physical and international thespian approach.

During 2018 and 2019, the International Applied Theatre Project de facto focused on the theme of
Migration, devising a piece in ten languages, with members from thirteen different countries (Italy,
Finland, Singapore, Venezuela, Romania, Mexico, Portugal, Greece, Taiwan, Estonia, Spain, United
Kingdom, Bulgaria) and extremely diversified backgrounds. The process unpacked the theme of
migration by challenging and exploring ideas of “borders”, language, nationality and diasporic identity.
According to Lavender: “Diaspora means ‘to scatter’ in Greek and refers to a community of people who
live outside their homelands but maintain active connections with them” (Lavender, 2019). Η πρόκληση
της χρήσης μιας μόνο γλώσσας στη σκηνή, αναγνωρισμένη ως τεχνολογία της νεο-αποικιοκρατίας,
συνεχώς ενθαρρύνεται τόσο στον χώρο πρόβας όσο και στη γραφή του έργου.2

Throughout the years, IATP focused more on the process for its participants than on the final product
accomplished for the audience, because before being “a theatre company”, the Project is “a learning
community”: an opportunity for the participants to be part of an international and multicultural “safe
space” – where it is safe to take creative risks and explore the single’s identity related to the group’s
dynamic. IATP uses improvisation techniques to create a set of boundaries to break; every exercise
encourages the participants to use their mother tongue and start the scene in complete neutrality. The
schemes of improvisation work to create physical actions inspired by everyday life, in geometric
structures that derive from the “Triangle” of the Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nekrosius, the “Schiera”
of the Italian director Gabriele Vacis and the “Repetition Game” of the American acting coach Sanford
Meisner. I am going to focus on the exercises that mostly led the learning community towards the
exploration of borders by imposing a set of rules and giving tools to challenge them: the Schiera. As
Gabriele Vacis, the director who ideated and created the Schiera for his actors, explains the exercise:

The method of the Schiera (“grid”) consists in an exercise born during the preparation of the
play Elementi di struttura del Sentimento 2 (“Elements of the structure of Sentiment 2”) (1985).
[...] The actors draw closer forming a grid. Then, they start walking for a given number of steps,
variable depending on the space they’re working in, for example, eight steps. All'ottavo passo

2
(in Greek) “The challenging of the use of only one language on stage, recognised as a technology of
neo-colonialism, was constantly encouraged both in the rehearsal space and in the script of the play.”
 nella direzione iniziale ci si volta e si continua a camminare per otto passi nella direzione
opposta, quindi ancora in direzione opposta e così via.3 The objective is to find a unison of
presence between the people walking, excluding every affectation, excluding every not
necessary movement and walking naturally.

(Vacis, 2020)

Schiera is an exercise where participants walk on an imaginary grid and are encouraged to become “a
whole”, walking at the same speed, following the same rhythm (sometimes given by a metronome),
breathing at the same time. When the group is finally homogenous, it is possible to break the rules and
boundaries of the Schiera. It is then that ethnic identities, after merging into each other to find a
meeting point, can singularly emerge in the performance. The strict grid that does not allow encounter
can be bent and changed to create a meeting point for diversity to fuse in a newfound sense of
community, that serves a fil rouge of nationalities and cultural identities. As David Block explains,
describing Bauman’s interpretation of this term: “Bauman views community as more a feeling than a
demographic, the metaphorical space in which people feel a sense of belonging to a collective and trust
in their acceptance by that collective. For Bauman, community can be a refuge from the alienating times
of contemporary life.” (Block, 2006: 25). The feeling that Bauman delineates is experimented by
members of the International Applied Theatre Project in the unity of their different life experiences
under the umbrella term of “migration”. In this case, the challenging Brexit situation served as the
“alienating times of contemporary life”. The uncertainty that this event created for international
students reinforced the need for applied theatre interventions that could create a new sense of
belonging, as well as a new reference point contrasting the ambiguity of the time.

In the assertion of the 2018 Project that “We Are All Migrants”, the learning community created a space
to interrogate themes of belonging to places and a sense of “homeness” away from home. During the
process, the Schiera was also improvised following the idea of the mirror in the Repetition Game, where
participants mirror each other aiming to become identical, despite their different heritage, race and
nationality. This way, the participants were encouraged to explore exchanges of identities, acting in
different languages from their own and engaging with different stories. Not surprisingly, the most
diverse “mirrors” were often the most interesting: a Singaporean citizen trying to imitate the Spanish
language of a native Colombian; a Portuguese actor mirroring the physical movement, facial expression

3
(in Italian) “At the 8th step in the initial direction they turn around and keep walking for eight steps in the opposite
direction, then again and so on.”
and language of an Estonian artist, and so on. This exercise challenged the performativity of race and
ethnicity while serving as a storytelling tool in the context of a verbatim performance and exchange of
identity.

Gloria Anzaldua, to describe borders and borderland, asserts: “A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip
along a steep edge. A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue
of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition” (Anzaldua, 1987: 3). To walk on the
Schiera is to walk on a borderland, a place of possibility. It is therefore interesting to analyse how
different races and ethnicities related to the concept of “border” imposed by the imaginary grid.
Members who came from neo-colonized countries like Singapore, or countries where the opposition to
a set of rules is socially highly discouraged, like Taiwan, were less likely to break the Schiera than
members who came from countries in Europe - historically colonizing empires and where mobility is
easier between countries of the European Union; in other words, colonial legacies played a role in the
theatrical space. These legacies also encompassed a differentiation within the relationship with the
events of Brexit: los estudiantes internacionales de la Unión Europeay tenían miedo de perder el
privilegio de pagar el hogar, mientras los participantes de Asia y América del Sur estaban preocupados
por la expiración de su visa.4 The result of these tensions emerged in the process as different
interpretations of the phrase “we are all migrants” and different stories of relationships with one’s
original country and language.

More recently, between 2019 and 2020, the learning community of IATP created the show ‘Walking – a
play in seven steps’, with new members from China, Colombia and Poland. This year, the theme of the
Project was “mythology”: each member was encouraged to find a myth that resonated with their
country, explore it through the use of their mother tongue and represent it on stage inside a multilingual
orchestra. The myths chosen by the participants were put in relation through the structure of the
Schiera, where connections between different characters, races and ethnicities emerged from the
neutrality of the beginning. The play started with two myths from Colombia and Venezuela, narrated in
the indigenous Colombian native language, Spanish and English. The colonial legacies of using three
languages, retracing stages of colonization of South America implied the choice to represent racial
identities as variable over time and historically fluid. Following the narration of these two myths, the

4
(in Spanish) “International students from the European Union were afraid to lose the privilege of home-fees,
while the participants from Asia and South America were worried about their expiring student visa.”
second scene focused on the myth of Circe, the witch who seduced Ulysses and transformed her guests
in pigs. The Italian Circe narrated the story of her love with Glaucous, and she introduced the character
of The General. The General, a Singaporean hero, started transforming in 汗的神话生物，不可阻挡的
怪物 5 while telling his story. This way, the racial identity of a Singaporean citizen who was obliged to
join the army, could be represented as the monstrosity of his lived experience. The performer chose to
criticize neo-colonial aspects of his country, such as the pressure to identify English as his mother tongue
despite his Chinese origins creating “complex patterns of intra-family communication” (Ferguson, 2008:
27), as well as ideas related to the “monstrosity” of war.

After The General’s scene, the play evolved into the narration of three Greek myths about femininity
and rebellion: Electra (in Polish and English), Antigone (in Greek and English) and Iphigenia (in Greek and
English). These three heroines, through the narration of their story, allowed an Intersectional analysis of
female and ethnic performativity. Each performer created their performance considering the
relationship with their country, their mother tongue and their family – rewriting original monologues,
finding different endings and developments of their characters, questioning their characters’ deepest
and most hidden desires. The Polish Electra tried to convince her Italian brother Orestes nie po to, by
zabić moją matkę, ale by rozpocząć nowe życie i zmienić przeznaczenie 6. The Greek Antigone, exploring
Anne Carson’s interpretation of Antigone ‘Antigonick’, questioned “How is a Greek chorus like a
lawyer?” (Sophocles and Carson, 2012: 1) and started a conversation with her Venezuelan father Kreon.
Iphigenia, in her mother tongue, found more reasons to live and implored not to be sacrificed, and so
on. Finally, the last scene of the play was a modernization of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice inspired
by the Argentinian-Italian director Cesar Brie and his play ‘Orfeo ed Euridice’. Set in a hospital, the scene
sees the Chinese Eurydice as a woman in a coma and her Colombian wife Orpheus trying to “let her go”.
The final image represented on stage, the Funeral of Eurydice, is a positive message of hope and
positivity for the future, an invitation to accept and celebrate what life gives and takes.

‘Walking – a play in seven steps’ (a name inspired by the steps of the Schiera) was meant to be
presented on the 14th of March at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. The reason why this
did not happen deserves a detailed explanation, as the motives are deeply embedded in the
performativity of “race” and ethnicity, as well as in the performativity of “applied theatre”. Following

5
(in Chinese) “the mythological creature of Khan, an unstoppable monster”
6
(in Polish) “not to kill their mother, but to start a new life and change their destiny”
the report by The New York Times A Timeline Of The Coronavirus Pandemic (Bryson Taylor, 2020), I am
going to review in parallel the effects of these facts on technologies of racism and xenophobia, as these
perceptions affected the Applied Theatre approach of IATP by changing situations of comfort and
discomfort among the group.

“On Jan. 30, amid thousands of new cases in China, a “public health emergency of international
concern” was officially declared by the W.H.O. China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that it would
continue to work with the W.H.O. and other countries to protect public health, and the U.S. State
Department warned travellers to avoid China” (Bryson Taylor, 2020).

At this time, people around the world started getting scared of what President Donald Trump of the USA
defined as “the Chinese virus”, and IATP members from China, Taiwan and Singapore started
experiencing a new subtle form of racism on the streets, made of suspicious looks and empty seats on
the tube due to their phenotype and the new connotations of their race.

“On Feb. 23, Europe faced its first major outbreak as the number of reported cases in Italy grew from
fewer than five to more than 150. In the Lombardy region, officials locked down 10 towns after a cluster
of cases suddenly emerged in Codogno, southeast of Milan. As a result, schools closed and sporting and
cultural events were cancelled” (Bryson Taylor, 2020).

When this happened, most members of the International Applied Theatre Project had to face extremely
difficult times, especially Italians; the aspect of their lives that was keeping them connected with their
original country gave them worries for their friends and family’s health, while the aspect of their lives
that was based in London made them experience forms of xenophobia and discrimination that was
specifically language-based.

In the meantime, what the International Applied Theatre Project decided to do on behalf of Central’s
Italian Society on the 14th of March, was to suspend the show. Even if precautionary measures were yet
to be officially taken in the United Kingdom, we chose not to take the hazard of exposing the audience
(as well as the performers, some of whom with families and friends at high risk in their original country
and consequently sensible on the subject) to a potentially dangerous situation. The decision to cancel
the show was also driven by a technology of performativity of Applied Theatre itself. As we wrote in the
letter of apologies dedicated to ticket holders:
 With the knowledge of the severity of the situation that is now before us, our collective
conscience does not allow us to stage a public performance that may compromise the safety
and well-being of our audience. This is especially so considering that this is fundamentally an
applied theatre project, one with transformative and rehabilitative aims. [...] This cancellation is
also a part of our process of applied theatre – where our desire and impulse to create art is
directed first and foremost to the wellbeing of the community. [...] We also strongly believe that
applied theatre is both a civil commitment as well as an act of social engagement.

(International Applied Theatre Project, 2020)

As it results evident from this example, the technologies of art and performance were in this case
embedded not only in the ethnicity and nationality of our performers but also in the definition of the
practice Applied Theatre. These elements were complementary in the process and in the final decision
taken, as well as strongly intersected with each other. Perhaps, this situation of uncertainty and
difficulty will be another representation of Anzaldua’s Borderland, and artists will find new ways to be
creative; because, as Anzaldua declares: “living in a state of psychic unrest, in a Borderland, is what
makes poets write and artists create” (Anzaldua, 2007: 95).

While I am writing this, on the 12th of April 2020, IATP is currently having online rehearsals once a week,
trying once again to bend its structure without letting it break. Adapting to the changing of time and
space as well as the participants’ and the audience’s needs, we are now exploring forms of
entertainment that can ease the tension of this difficult time, bringing theatre and performance in
people’s houses at the moment where it is mostly needed: a moment of crisis. From videos of our
multicultural and multilingual quarantine experiences shared on Social Media platforms to the study of
techniques of Puppet Theatre and Theatre of the Absurd via Zoom meetings, the International Applied
Theatre Project is still challenging ethnic identities and race representation, trying to break the borders
of the Schiera even when there is not space to take seven steps together.

Bibliography:

Anzaldua, G. E. (1987/2007) Borderlands / La frontera: the New Mestiza. San Francisco, CA Aunt Lute
Books.
Block, D. (2006). Multilingual identities in a global city – London stories. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bryson Taylor, D. (2020). A Timeline Of The Coronavirus Pandemic. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at:
<https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-timeline.html> [Accessed 26 March 2020].

Kenner, C., Hickey T. (editors) (2008) Multilingual Europe. UK and Sterling: Trentham Books.

Lavender, A. D. (2019) ‘Diaspora’, Salem Press Encyclopedia. Available at:

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=93787543&site=eds-live (Accessed:
13 April 2020).

Sophocles and Carson, A. (2012). Antigonick. New Directions.

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March 2020].

Vacis, G. (2020). SCHIERA Il Teatro Come Strumento Di Pace Ad Alessandria. [online] Newspettacolo.com.
(Translated by Virgilio Chiara) Available at: <http://www.newspettacolo.com/news/view/11518-
schiera_il_teatro_come_strumento_di_pace_ad_alessandria> [Accessed 3 April 2020].