¡Controlamos la Narrativa!: Collaborative Dramaturgy as a Tool for Latine Representation in Secondary Theatre Education

Current secondary theatre education in America places a priority on Western ideals of theatre history and practices. Latine theatre history is hardly taught, and if it is, it is touched minimally. Latine culture places an emphasis on a collective, both in theoretical and practical work. Similarly, the practice of dramaturgy itself is rarely mentioned in curriculums, rather intertwined within lessons of acting, directing, and design. This creates an imbalance in practice versus theory in theatre education. I intend to introduce the concept of collaborative dramaturgy: a form of dramaturgy where students collaborate as dramaturgs to bring about discussions about identity. I believe it is important that Latine students are exposed not only to seeing Latine creatives represented on stage but as well as in their curriculum. In this thesis, I will explore the following questions: How does collaborative dramaturgy fit in a Latine classroom? How does a focus on physicality and text aid Latine theatre education? How does Latine representation work in a non-Latine text