Intergenerational Theatre in India: A Reflective Practitioner Case Study on an Intercultural Theatre Exchange between Canada and Rural Tamil Nadu by Matthew Joseph Gusul B.A., Augustana University, 2004 M.A., University of Alberta, 2009 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Theatre © Matthew Gusul, 2016 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE Intergenerational Theatre in India: A Reflective Practitioner Case Study on an Intercultural Theatre Exchange between Canada and Rural Tamil Nadu By Matthew Joseph Gusul B.A., Augustana University, 2004 M.A., University of Alberta, 2009 Supervisory Committee Dr. Warwick Dobson, Supervisor (Department of Theatre) Dr. Allana Lindgren, Departmental Member (Department of Theatre) Dr. Holly Tuokko, Outside Member (Department of Psychology) II ABSTRACT PAGE Supervisory Committee Dr. Warwick Dobson, Supervisor (Department of Theatre) Dr. Allana Lindgren, Departmental Member (Department of Theatre) Dr. Holly Tuokko, Outside Member (Department of Psychology) ABSTRACT In 2004, a Tsunami had devastating effects on the province of Tamil Nadu, India. In the community’s re-building process, many elders were forced to live in areas of the coastal region referred to as “Grannie Dumps,” because their homes were destroyed. With the monetary help of HelpAge International and the guidance of Michael Etherton, these elders are now part of an active, healthy community named Tamaraikulam Elders Village (TEV) that wants to tell its story. In March 2008, Michael Etherton attended a Workshop/Performance of GeriActors & Friends (G&F), an intergenerational theatre company from Edmonton, AB. I was G&F’s Assistant Director. After this, Etherton connected me with HelpAge India and TEV, realizing that the methods used with G&F would benefit TEV. Starting in January 2013 and completing in June 2015, under my direction, the University of Victoria’s Theatre Department assisted TEV in creating intergenerational theatre performance with various young people’s charity groups throughout the Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry region. The dissertation is structured as a reflective practitioner case study and is split into two sections. The first section of my work will communicate to the reader the events of the case study in India. The latter half of this work will be a collection of exegesis chapters reflecting upon the salient issues for the field of applied theatre research and practice which my research project brings up and how my reflections will affect my future practice while providing suggestions for how they could impact the entire field of applied theatre. III Contents Supervisory Committee – Page II Abstract – Page III Contents – Page IV Acknowledgements – Page V Introduction – Page 1 Send Directors, Spoons, and Beer: A Creative Non-Fiction Case Study – Page 5 Exegesis Chapters Introduction – Page 196 Exegesis Chapter One - The Playful Ontic Approach – Page 197 Exegesis Chapter Two - Playfulness and Neoliberalism: Intergenerational Theatre as a Space outside Neoliberal Control – Page 223 Exegesis Chapter Three - Inaesthetic and Applied Theatre: A discussion on “Message-Laden Theatre vs. Real Voices” and “Theatre Magic” – Page 245 Exegesis Chapter Four - The Conversation Doesn’t End When They Leave for a Beer: Movement from Critical to Post-Critical Pedagogy – Page 257 Bibliography - Page 277 Appendix A – University of Victoria Ethics Approval – Page 283 Appedix B – Photograph Credits – Page 321 IV Acknowledgments The community formed in relation to the creation of this book is one I am proud to be a part of and even prouded that I am a storyteller for. This dissertation, although my name appears on it, represents the hard work and perseverance of many people. I would first like to thank my supervisor, Warwick Dobson. His guidance and expertise has been so important throughout this project. I would also like to thank all of my graduate student and faculty colleagues in the University of Victoria. I would like to recognize Trudy Paluuth-Penner, Shona Athey, Aisling Kennedy, Lauren Jerke, Alix Reynolds, Tim Smith, Jennifer Wise, Allana Lindgren, Holly Tuokko, Carol Miller, and Juliana Saxton for their direct contributions to my research project. I would also like to thank HelpAge India, Tamaraikulam Elders Village, Isha Foundation, AIM for SEVA, and SOS Children’s Village. I would like to show my appreciation for Ramalingam Venugopal, Dr. Sathiayababu, Mathew Cherian, all the teachers and administration at the Cuddalore – Isha Vidhya Matriculation School, the elders living in Tamaraikulam, and the students of the Isha School. They believed in this project and were its life blood. I would also like to directly thank Nikki Bell, Laura Buchan, Katelyn Clark, Kaeden Derksen, Molison Farmer, Chelsea Graham, Blair Moro, Jillian O’Quinn, Kathleen O’Reilly, Emily Tennant, and Leah Tidey, the 11 undergraduate students who came on the India Field School. Their energy to discover India while we were there together was a positive impact on this project. I would also like to recognize my funding sources and the institutions which helped my research. I would like to thank the University of Victoria’s Learning Without Borders grant and the Fine Arts Faculty and the Theatre Department’s various scholarship/ award programs and for their Teaching Assistant program. I would also like to show my gratefulness to the variety of work I obtained as a grad student while studying in Victoria. Thank you to The Learning and Teaching Centre for their Centre for Academic Communication and the Teaching Assistant Consultant programs and thank you to community of scholars created around the Learning Without Borders grant. Thank you to the Shastri Institute which paid for my first trip to India. And finally, thank you to the Canadian and Albertan Government for their loan support through my PhD studies. I want to thank both Michael Etherton and David Barnet whose theatrical work influenced my research. Without these two men, their practices, and the wonderful communities they have worked with, my research would never have taken place. I want to thank my family and friends. I have to further recognize my Mom and my former partner, Liz, who helped provide me with unparalleled support. I want to dedicate this dissertation to my Father. I think he would be proud of this accomplishment. V Introduction A paradoxical relationship exists in my attempted work in the theatre and, even more so, in my attempted work in writing this dissertation. My aim, above all others, is to allow space for the marginalized voices in society to perform the important stories from their lives in an endeavour to achieve social justice. But, in my work with these communities, I am most often in a leadership role which places me in the governance of any project I am involved with, meaning no matter the methods I take I will ultimately have power in any utterances created by the theatrical or written efforts. In theatrical work, I am either the playwright, director, or consultant and in my execution of this work I am the author. I point this out because I want any reader to know of my awareness of this paradox and I will seek to question any power dynamics which exist. I agree with Edward Said when in his Orientalism he declares, “It is therefore correct that every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was consequently a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric” (56). Although he states this in reference to 19th Century European academics, I would suggest my cultural position as a 21st Century Canadian from rural Alberta of European decent maintains many of these qualities. I know it may seem harsh to agree with Said’s words but this attitude has been important to my career and to this research project. I have tried to be constantly aware of my cultural position while working with communities and while writing. As aware as I am, I cannot change my gaze and the paradox of my aims versus my cultural position is persistently present. While taking this approach during this research project, I have found that leadership arises from unlikely places and a special power lies in the community. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Indian deconstructivist, feminist, Marxist, anti- imperialist theorist/ thinker, in her seminal article Can the Subaltern Speak? ends the work by stating, “The subaltern cannot speak. There is no virtue in global laundry lists with ‘woman’ as a pious item. Representation has not withered away. 1 The female intellectual as intellectual has a circumscribed task which she must not disown with a flourish” (309). I am a Western male intellectual who has taken up Spivak’s ‘task’ of finding a way for the subaltern to speak - to have voice. From my point of view and through living my experiences, I gladly argue the subaltern can in fact have a voice but what is needed are particular circumstances. I have had failed attempts at representing the ‘other’s voice’ throughout previous theatrical projects but what I witnessed in the India project I will write about here was a moment where the subaltern’s voice rang loud. This is what I have been searching for throughout my career and I am happy to share it in this piece of writing. Power dynamics are certainly at work in regards to my position as a leader in the Indian theatre project but I will seek to scrutinize these dynamics with the purpose of analyzing if my assertion of the apparent ringing of the subaltern’s voice really did occur. *** Now, my goal in this introduction is to guide any reader in exactly how this book will be written. An academic might ask: what is your methodology? I am terming my methodology reflective practitioner case study.