On the Merits of Seeing, Studying and Making Global Theatre

By Dean Maldonato

The worldwide view of the United States is very complex, on one hand
we distribute large scale agriculture and military supplies that help develop
nations, on the other hand we distribute entertainment seen as glamourous,
sexual, gross and perverted (Hertsgaard) and we have multiple military
bases in around eighty countries (Vine). Our entertainment is not confined to
the United States, this proven by the top ten most listened to songs in the
world consistently being from the United States (Spotify.com). Because the
majority of the worlds entertainment comes from the US, westerners have
become self-centered. Theatre students in western countries should see and
study global theatre to alleviate their ignorance to other cultures granted to
them by being western however, they should make global theatre to
integrate non-western cultural styling and breathe new life into western
practices.

A theatre student or professional should not jump strait into trying to

producing a Kathakali show done with Bunraku puppets having no
background studying global practices. That would be seen as cultural
appropriation. In this modern age of the internet most everything we produce
can and will be recorded for the world to see. Knowing that we, theatre

students, have vastly larger audiences than just the physical audience in the
show we must compensate for the multiple perspectives as to not offend
another culture. Because one other benefit of the internet is that anyone can
post online ranting or raving about our work. Since this is always a possibility
nowadays, we must educate ourselves on global theatre practices so they
can be tastefully culturally borrowed, not misappropriated. This should be
done by reading, breaking down and discussing plays with a global narrative
written by non-western playwrights. We should look to cultures that did not
grow out of the Greco-Roman culture and use them as a guide for how we
ourselves could have evolved theatrically. The student needs to study global
theatre to understand the subtlety and notice the tendencies artfully woven
into global performance.

Watching global theatre gives us a glimpse into a different perspective

laden with new biases and a different cultural history, helping us learn to
look at our own society with the same disconnect. It helps us learn to create
an objective opinion rather than live in misguided ignorance. By watching
global theatre we gain a deeper understanding of what western styles stuck
with these cultures post-colonization and see different ways to use these
styles. It also teaches how to give objects and places more significance, by
seeing how the beauty pageant was put on in Princess Pocahontas it fully put
the significance on CORN that just the script could not. It also applies what
we have learned from studying global theatre because we can

compartmentalize the show for all their subtle or not so subtle

representations of the west. Thus helping us understand the western impact
on their society from a more native view.

Once we learn the stylistic practices of another culture, we should then

take it upon ourselves to apply those styles to a production if not simply to
test how well we know the style but to attempt to create new and different
meanings from western texts. Styling western productions in non-western
styles helps to put the play in a new light and gives the audience along with
the actors a unique experience to interpret the play differently than they
normally would. I believe we should start with a western text and apply nonwestern styling to it before attempting to stage a non-western play. This way
we can use the base framework of western plays that is familiar and apply
the unfamiliar to it rather than starting with an unfamiliar framework. Making
global theatre as a westerner has the propensity to create a whole new style
of theatre as well, one not specifically western or any other culture, but
global.

To move the theatre community forward and into the future we as

westerners need to diversify our styles of performance so that we start to
disseminate a new wave of globalized western entertainment to the world.
While studying these cultures and seeing the cancerous effects of the

western world may be disenchanting and depressing for western students,

especially after the wests representation in Harvest. However, once they are
disenchanted they are presented with an opportunity to start growing as an
artist from a less biased perspective ready and open to embracing new and
strange ideas. It will create ethnic cultural relativists out of the students by
making them understand that other cultures are not worse or wrong, just
different. It also forces the student to be introspective about their own moral
beliefs when looking at other societies. So to add positively to our worlds
global community western theatre students should study, see then make
global theatre from western and non-western texts.