The Student Spect-Actor: Embodying Community Through Theatre

This paper is the accumulation of the research and executed facilitation of applied theatre methods with a group of university students. The applied theatre methods of Theatre of the Oppressed and Theatre for Living were used to confront community issues with a group of Western students. Using the definition of white supremacy and white supremacy culture from Laya Saad and Tema Okun, the group explored their individual relationship to these issues through theatre and pushed deeper to understand how it manifested in the community. The experiences of the workshop facilitator and the participants are explored to understand the transformation the group went through to move from spectators to actors in the theatrical phenomenon. Participants\u27 direct action in the theatrical phenomenon was created from embodied practice, games and exercises, storytelling, group discussion, and image theatre