Collective (re)creation as site of reclamation, reaffirmation, and redefinition

Abstract

The essay that follows draws on more than thirty years of performance devising and creation. Initially trained as a Western theatre artist, since 1989 my work has focused primarily on indigenous performance. While at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, I served as artistic director of Tuma Theatre, an Alaska Native performance company, for which I developed eight performances based on ritual and traditional performance. My work with Alaska Natives provided a template and evolved into Litooma, an ongoing intercultural project that has conducted research and workshops, and created performances with the Zulu in South Africa and with groups in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Korea, India, Nepal, China, Russia, and the Republic of Sakha, central Siberia. Most recently, I facilitated development of a devised performance, Andgena [The First], during a four-month residency in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My work with indigenous groups folds ritual, research, performance, tradition, and drama therapy to create place-specific, post-disciplinary expressions so as to reimagine the role and function of performance in a rapidly globalizing world threatened with environmental collapse.