Toward a Postmodern Ethnography of Intercultural Theatre: an Instrumental Case-study of the Prague-Toronto- Manitoulin Theatre Project

This thesis examines collaborative intercultural theatre that brings artists from different parts of the world together to create original work. It includes a case-study of the Prague- Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project, a theatrical collaboration that took place between 1999 and 2006 and with which I was involved as a performer and facilitator. The thesis considers the case-study within historical context, particularly in relation to the ideas and experiments of influential twentieth-century practitioner-theorists such as Brecht, Artaud, Brook and Schechner. I distinguish between modernist and postmodernist traditions in intercultural theatre discourse by tracing how the latter arose in response to poststructural arguments in cultural theory. In recent decades, theatre practices have accommodated this redirection by being more mindful of politics and ethics. I argue that approaches to research and analysis have lagged behind, and that alternative approaches are needed that are better suited to address contemporary practices and issues. I borrow from critical traditions in Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Education to build up a postmodern ethnographic approach to my case-study of the Prague-Toronto-Manitoulin Theatre Project. At stake in the case-study is the extent to which the additional contextual knowledge available to a postmodern ethnographic approach contributes to theatrical analysis and interpretation. More concerned with the instrumental value of the case-study than its intrinsic properties, I use the data to demonstrate that a postmodern ethnography is well-suited to consider ethics of representation in an intercultural context, that is, what the possibilities and limitations of dialogue across cultural difference may be. This, I argue, is as important as ever in a world in which intercultural encounter is common and cultural performance circulates with increasing fluidity and ease.