Immersion Into «Living Worlds» Through Documentary Theatre: A Reflective Essay Based on Theatre Project "Voices”

• In Event: Healing Trauma and Creating Friendships Through Ethnodrama and Other Forms of Research-Based Theatre

Abstract

In the excerpt from “Voices,” I play the woman who shouts, “You must leave!” In truth, leaving Ukraine was difficult. What was most challenging was leaving my library. Some books were bought with the last of my money; others at different conferences. I left those books in Odessa; they are not available online. Healing meant transforming from being acted on as a refugee to acting as performer and sociologist. As I engaged with the rich material of forced displacement and exile, a three-level research concept emerged: 1) Constructing "reality" through social theater; 2) Reflecting on "reality" as a performer and researcher 3) Reflecting on the depiction of "reality" through the audience’s eyes.

Author

• Daria Vystavkina, Cologne-Bonn Academy in Exile