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A dramaturgy of intercultural A clear and compelling link can be made between the drama-
turgical processes developed in contemporary performance-
teaching and learning making and the development of a constructivist pedagogy for
use in the IB Diploma Programme (DP). This paper explores how
Neil Keating intercultural writings could be used to develop an intercultural
dramaturgy and goes on to explore how this dramaturgy could
be seen in light of current thinking about culturally responsive
pedagogy. This interdisciplinary approach allows for a synthe-
sis of practices and an opportunity to draw lessons from per-
formance to pedagogy. Considering research in contemporary
performance practice, dramaturgy and recent research released
by the IB to contextualize the action research, this paper points
towards some areas for further investigation.

Introduction Dramaturgy is an object of discourse that emerges from a process;

it is the algorithm through which each dramatic idea gets tested in
Intercultural exchange is a core component of International Bacca- order to determine whether it will complement the overall goal of the
laureate teaching and learning across the continuum. This exchange performance. When we are considering the dramaturgy of text, it is
can facilitate greater knowledge and understanding, a critical ap- helpful to consider Barba’s (Barba & Savarese, 1991, p. 68) defini-
proach to learning, creativity and creative problem solving. It draws tion: “That which concerns the text (the weave) of the performance
upon students’ unique backgrounds to foster an additive approach to can be defined as ‘dramaturgy’.” Through this, we see dramaturgy
learning that builds vertically, investigating a subject from a range of as a sort of analysis of the actions and meaning of the text, some-
perspectives, many offered by the students themselves. This is clearly thing that could remain particularly inactive. Ruffini (1991, p. 241)
seen in an IB Diploma Programme Theatre course that develops— compares dramaturgy to the idea of “work” in physics and goes on
through discourse with research, dialogue within the classroom and to say that “Dramaturgy understood in this way thus appears as the
practical work in the performing arts—a rounded understanding of filter, the canal, by means of which energy takes form in movements.”
the processes and ideas involved in creating theatre. In theatre, dram- Here we see dramaturgy as a conduit for the energy of the creative
aturgy is a field of practice that considers the logical underpinning of process to take the form of performance articulations—pushing the
a piece, focusing on the processes that led to its creation. The work of “idea energy” into a concrete form of expression, which can then find
the dramaturge is to follow the creative decisions of the theatre mak- a performance articulation.
ers, drawing from the disparate creative impulses of how a work is
devised or rehearsed, in order to form a scaffold of consistent logic—a Understood in this way, dramaturgy can be usefully applied to an
dramaturgy—that emerges over time, through discussion, that allows intercultural pedagogy of teaching and learning.
the decisions of the theatre maker to be “tested” against a common
• Dramaturgy implies a structure in which flexibility and creativity
standard.
are possible.

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Journalof
ofTeaching
TeachingPractice
Practice Action research report

• Pedagogy provides a systematic approach for the application, ex- file is embedded in a Western humanist tradition of learning” (2010,
ploration, exchange and development of knowledge, experience p. 8). This cornerstone document of internationalism as envisioned
and learning. by the IB contains within it a “Western” ideological framework. In
IB programmes, then, providing space for authentic intercultural ex-
• Intercultural contexts allow for the fruitful exchange of cultural and
change that resists the imposition of one culture’s assumptions and
individual positions and perspectives, possibly moving toward a
political values can be a challenge. It becomes important consciously
shared space of ‘neither-one-nor-another’ culture.
to adapt a critical approach in order to make the intercultural ex-
The intersection of these three concepts provides an opportunity to changes mutually beneficial.
create a more significantly rounded educational experience for teach-
Interculturalism offers a framework from which to enter more equal
ers and students.
interactions, providing practitioners with strategies for exploring and
Interculturalism in theatre education discovering the connections, differences and common expressions
between different cultures—rather than attempting to force them
Interculturalist approaches allow for an investigation of the space be- together through a premature search for commonality. Rather than
tween cultures, the dialogue and interaction between cultural expres- finding a mixed cultural representation—one in which two or more
sions. Rather than promoting the idea that different cultures form cultural formulations come together to create a new formulation—
a single identity for the duration of an interaction, interculturalism there is value in investigating the space between different cultures.
views cultures as remaining distinct while they mutually engage in a This is not a matter of placing them in conflict, but rather allowing
common investigation of their contrasting and common elements. As their differences and connections to be examined and considered,
Sauerberg (2001) comments: “With two different cultures as simul- thereby encouraging meaningful dialogue.
taneous points of reference, ideas and imagined fates can be played
against each other in the space created between the two cultures” (em- Character and limitations of research
phasis added).
The research contained within this paper is primarily based on an
What is this “space between cultures”? The word “space” denotes “intercultural writing for performance” process undertaken with IB
the elements of contradiction and difference between interacting Diploma Programme students in 2011 at Waterford Kamhlaba Unit-
cultures—a “space” is opened up between them that enables an addi- ed World College of Southern Africa. As a classroom teacher, I was

“Interculturalism offers a framework from which to enter more equal interactions, providing prac-
titioners with strategies for exploring and discovering the connections, differences and common
expressions between different cultures—rather than attempting to force them together through
a premature search for commonality. ”

tional element, distinct from the original cultures, to be formed. The both an active participant in the research and, from another perspec-
“space between” opens possibilities for discovering a hybrid creation, tive, a disinterested observer working within the context of a formal
something neither one culture nor the other, but taking constituent academic investigation. With a relatively small and highly interactive
elements from both. group, we aimed to create an authentic community of practice where
my roles as teacher and co-producer of art were purposefully blurred
This kind of intercultural exchange is difficult to effect in principles in a workshop setting.
and in practice, ironically, especially for IB World Schools. Former
Director General of the IB George Walker is quite explicit when he This study has some important limitations. The research sample was
observes that “with its strong emphasis on individual inquiry, personal small. This means that there is little or no statistical significance to
responsibility and independent critical thinking, the [IB] learner pro- the study—the sample does not and could not reflect a larger cross-

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section of society. Indeed, the participants were drawn from a most Participants were asked to consider—before commencing the work-
uncommon environment—an international school where students shops—what interculturalism meant to them. Responses included:
are selected from many different countries on every continent to both
• “inspiration from different cultures living together”
live and study together while attempting to live by and promote a
mission that focuses on sustainability and peace. While the students • “communication, knowledge, transmission and friendship across
come from a range of socio-economic backgrounds and have had cultural boundaries”
many different life experiences, they are all highly educated relative to
many groups in any society. The community they live in is construct- • “the togetherness of more than one culture”
ed—in the sense that it would not “naturally” evolve in this way. • “combining culture”
The research participants were self-selecting, which may call into ques- • “a blend of cultures”
tion their motivations for being a part of the study. I am a teacher in
the school and so had prior encounters with all research participants • “a mingling of different cultures”
and this may have influenced the way that participants behaved. The
• “cultures living together”
nature of this kind of research is that the results cannot be tested
nor the processes repeated in such a way that one could reasonably • “when cultures meet and/or combine”
expect the same result. It is important to view this study as a limited,
• “themes, ideas, practices that are universal throughout different
qualitative narrative analysis that explores what happened when an
cultures and that apply and are relevant in many cultures as well”
intercultural group came together to explore writing processes.
• “creating connection between [people from different cultures]
Action research and the exploration of
without forgetting their original background”.
intercultural dramaturgy
Consistently in the participants’ responses there is an emphasis on the
Much of the research gathered for this paper emerged from work-
combination of cultures, cultures coming together, existing in the same
shops undertaken in May 2011. These workshops were designed to
space, going across boundaries and finding the common ground.
explore ideas around grief and interculturalism in writing-for-perfor-
mance for a master of art dissertation submitted to Brunel University Later, at the very end of the workshops, participants were asked to
in September 2011. While the scope and focus of the workshops was provide their own definition of interculturalism, in light of what they
not specifically on pedagogy and the workshops took place outside of had explored through the workshops. Responses continue to dem-
regular classes, many of the understandings I gained in those work- onstrate an emphasis on the “blending” and “merging” of cultures,
shops are relevant to pedagogical practice in the IB Diploma Pro- but also began to include ideas about the differences between cultures:
gramme. All the workshop participants were DP students. Several
• “interaction between people from different cultures”
were IB Diploma Programme Theatre students.1
• “recognition of the similarities and diversities across many cul-
Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa is an
tures”
IB World School with about 600 students, the majority of whom live
on campus, across seven years of high school education. Though there • “a new culture”
is a high proportion of Swazi students, the student body represents a
number of nationalities, especially in the DP years. All participants • “interacting, knowledge exchange and engagement between cul-
said, through their questionnaire responses, that they experienced in- tures”
terculturalism on a regular basis, and in every case the reason given
• “where various cultures meet and their relativities are express[ed]”
for this answer was that they lived in and attended an international
school. This response was in line with my expectations and one rea- • “an interactive relationship that learns and sacrifices and grows and
son why I saw this educational context as an ideal location for con- changes into (hopefully) a new culture which encompassed all the
ducting these workshops. positives of the other cultures”.

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Participants’ responses show an interesting shift in perspective—from In informal discussions with the participants, it became clear that
a sense of combining, merging and mixing with no seemingly ar- many people had chosen someone who was entirely different from
ticulated result, to a greater sense of interacting, exchange. Where their personality, someone who had entirely different opinions and
the ideas of merging and combining remain, they are discussed with outlooks regarding others. Many participants seemed to work from
an emphasis on creating something new: a hybrid culture, one that the perspective of someone with whom they could not imagine be-
combines elements of both or all, holding parts of each in a novel ing comfortable. Their discomfort seemed to show through in their
intercultural space. writings. The participants’ polemic approach appears to have failed.

The range and volume of writings collected from the participants at Many of the writings produced by the participants in other exercises
the end of the workshop was immense. A selection of extracts2 has focused on the past. This remembering of former times proved to
been made that attempts to identify some key trends and striking be a more successful approach, offering participants a stronger sense
aspects of the writings.3 In the workshop, we conducted a number of of identity with their characters from which to work. Here, the past
writing exercises, some of which opened windows into participants’ became a foundation for developing and understanding the present
ideas about intercultural understanding. One exercise invited par- experience of people from other cultures.
ticipants to imagine someone from another culture and to attempt
For example:
to write in his or her voice. Across the two-day workshop, this task
proved to be the most difficult. The difficulty is apparent in the par- • “Weird how I start of thinking culture and ended up thinking
ticipants’ writings—responses to this exercise often dealt in clichéd history.”
phrases that seemed forced and derived from other sources.
• “My legs ached, tired from running from the demons of my past.”
For example, writing about an experience of grief felt by the person
from another culture, responses included: • “Is that my grandmother bellowing over some undone chore. Ha
ha it is the sound of home.”
• “When she turned sick and died right after something deep, some-
thing important died in me as well.” • “He knows nothing about my memories, I know nothing about
his.”
• “Should I be laughing? I mean, Alex just died, and I did watch
him die. Is it right to laugh at such things? Well, who says we This mix (abstract reflection about the nature of culture and history,
shouldn’t?” the sound of home and the mystery and impenetrability of someone
else’s memories) opens just a small window into the many writings
• “He goes on a rampage. He loses it. He goes out of town to a on past and memory developed in the workshop. Focusing on what
sheep farm, he sneaks in the sheep barn, and he starts screwing has gone before, it seems, can help us not only to re-live past events,
the sheep.” but also help us to craft concrete, contemporary narratives of our
own lives, and then to shape those memories and narratives into an
In these excerpts, there is a sense of forced empathy, of trying to pre-
authentic personal identity from which we can enter into dialogue
sent the genuine voice of another person, but finding little ground
with “the other” across dramaturgical space.
from which to develop that voice.

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Also contained within many writings and the reflections of workshop is impossible to cover and even harder to destroy.”
participants were ideas surrounding how language and identity have
• “It is a home. It is always a home, where I always go back even if
an impact on each other. In considering how languages shape cul-
I leave and I live somewhere else, this is the place I always come
tures, it is worth considering that:
back.”
Language thus represents the hidden values in societies’
• “A person is not a person without his community. He does not
cultures, as well as the way in which these values are
have a sense of identity.”
transmitted and become apparent and significant in the
narratives of groups or individuals as they make sense of In these examples, students seem to suggest that self-knowledge is the
the world. In other words, language is a representation key to becoming an effective dramaturge. Can one really engage in
of culture as well as a culturally specific form of com- an intercultural (or any other kind of ) exchange without first having
munication. some sense of the full extent of one’s own existence? To know one’s
own self first—considering the range and scope of possible iterations
(Allan, 2011, p. 5)
of self, exploring the potential for revising or re-viewing the self—
In bringing together different cultures, with different linguistic back- emerges as a secure base on which to build bridges to other characters,
grounds, the intercultural teacher has to help his or her learners to other cultures. Here too we find a pathway from the dramaturgy of
negotiate the “hidden values” locked into language. This writing for interculturalism to the pedagogy of the intercultural—an appreciation
performance process was able to uncover some of the intricacies in- of starting with individual knowledge and working outwards from it.
herent in culturally-inscribed language, revealing some of the values
that language contains. In articulating complexities that often resist
being put into words, writing-for-performance and the dramaturgy
that it contains are able to express some of these complex ideas.
Stay ahead of
In all these workshop examples, a common theme and key feature
is identity. Participants were often exploring questions such as these:
curriculum changes
Who are we and what does it mean to be who we are? How can we Register
know that we are who we are? What happens when something comes
THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE today
to disrupt our self-understanding? Identity, in many ways, emerged ibo.org/events
SUBJECT-SPECIFIC SEMINARS
as the pivot point connecting the other themes that characterized
participants’ writing-for-performance: memory, culture, intercultur-
BEGIN IN FEBRUARY 2013
alism. These category 3 workshops cover IB Africa, Europe, Middle East
important changes to the Diploma • 1 February Brussels, Belgium
Programme TOK subject guide.
Here are some examples of students’ writing that reflect their concern IB Americas
Subject-specific seminars will be
held at face-to-face events within • 2 March Detroit, MI, USA
with identity:
the first months of publication • 9 March Memphis, TN, USA
of the new guide. • 2 May Buenos Aires, Argentina
• “I am curiosity.”
All workshops held after the • 16 May Guayaquil, Ecuador
subject-specific seminars (online • 23 May Santiago, Chile
• “That’s true culture, always coming back.” and face-to-face) will work to the
IB Asia-Pacific
new guide.
• “What I am is beyond the mortal me, it’s beyond the cause of life • 17 February Hong Kong
SAR, China
that was me! Me doesn’t exists, me has lost itself in the wilderness, • 22 February Singapore,
in this labyrinth and myriad concorxion of strangeness. A stranger Singapore
• 28 February Mumbai, India
to myself.”

• “However, here I have more colors, I still haven’t lost those colors,
our colors, I promise I never do. They are deep, painted so that it

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Questions that remain from the re- in the process of constructing meaning through investigation, set-
search ting up a common language of interaction, developing a standard
against which propositions can be tested, valuing an understanding
This modest research raises further questions that deserve investiga- that the collective, the disparate and the uncertain hold possibilities
tion. for new knowledge to be formed. Dramaturgy offers a communica-
• How can schools explore and extrapolate the practice of making tive and organizing tool that can help students to understand the way
theatre in pedagogical practice across disciplines? in which they are learning.

• What opportunities for interdisciplinary approaches to pedagogy These constructions demand a critical approach that develops stu-
exist and what value can they bring to developing dramaturgical dents’ abilities to investigate an ever-changing world, not giving them
pedagogy? facts, but rather crafting for them an experience of process; they lay
bare the way reality can be co-constructed. Exercises such as writing-
• What support do teachers need in addressing changes to pedagogi- for-performance can begin to explore and expose the potential of in-
cal practice that promote intercultural understanding? terculturalist approaches in the classroom, and they can demonstrate,
for teachers and students alike, the value of creating dialogue for de-
• What further role can writing-for-performance, or other forms of
veloping understanding in any academic discipline. While dramatur-
creative writing, have as a reflective tool in all student learning?
gy comes from the world of performance and theatre, its application
• How can dramaturgy or writing-for-performance be used to ex- to the taught curriculum (the process knowledge that underpins all
plore ideas around international mindedness, as expressed in the classroom interactions) surely has relevance for the evolving contem-
attributes of the IB learner profile? porary pedagogy of all IB programmes.

Conclusion
The dramaturgy that emerged from this writing process is one that
About the author
concerns itself with the language of identity and the identity held
within language, one that enacts metaphors for personalized expres- Neil Keating is the Head of Department for Theatre and
sion, one that allows memory and history to intertwine with the im- Drama at Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of
mediate. These connections are all ephemeral and contingent on the Southern Africa, in the Kingdom of Swaziland. He com-
performative moment. It is a dramaturgy that turns culture over in pleted his master of arts in Contemporary Performance
its hands to see what lies on the underside, one that seeks to under- Making from the University of Brunel in 2011. He has
stand what makes culture what it is, what makes people who they are. worked as a teacher and dramaturge for several years.
Thus, it is a composite dramaturgy, the dramaturgy of many over-
lapping voices, ideas, meanings, words, senses and experiences into
one series or set of expressions. Performance is an impression of an
event, a space in which multiple aspects of many different expressions Endnotes
come together, to form meaning. That meaning, however, is always
1
As the proposed workshops presented some ethical concerns—such
ill-defined, complex, amorphous. Its blood pumps from many hearts,
as the fact that some participants would be under the age of 18, and
and it has many faces, never showing all of them at the same time.
that I am a teacher and tutor at the school—safeguards such as in-
This multi-faced dramaturgy connects in deep ways with contem- formed consent, the right to withdraw for any or no reason, and assur-
porary educational thinking about student-centred learning. In ances that the workshops would have no impact on the participants’
these constructivist formulations, communities construct rather assessments were put in place. Full research ethics documentation can
than transmit knowledge and understanding. Teacher as learner, and be gained by contacting the author.
learner as teacher: this is the realm of ambiguity, of fluidity and of
2
The extracts have been quoted verbatim so that the effect of the
ever-changing ground. Teaching practice can learn from dramaturgy

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writing can be fully appreciated. Some writings had little or no punc- References
tuation, which gave a sense of rhythm that would be lost in a gram-
matically correct rendition. All misspellings have likewise been repro- Allan, M. (2011). Thought, word and deed: The roles of cognition, lan-
duced without the use of “[sic]”. There were occasions where unclear guage and culture in teaching and learning in IB World Schools.
handwriting required an element of guess-work to be undertaken. Cardiff, UK: IB Publishing.
Every reasonable attempt was taken to ensure the words are repro- Barba, E. & Savarese, N. (1991). A dictionary of theatre anthropology:
duced accurately. Insertions or changes are indicated through [ ]. The secret art of the performer. (R. Gough, Ed., & R. Fowler,
3
All participants, where they opted to provide their writings, ac- Trans.). London and New York: Routledge.
knowledged that they would not be credited as the author of the Bharucha, R. (1992). Theatre and the world: Performance and the poli-
words, to protect anonymity. The words are reproduced here without tics of culture. London and New York: Routledge.
attribution of authorship.
Ruffini, F. (1991). The culture of the text and the culture of the stage.
In E. Barba & N. Savarese, A dictionary of theatre anthropol-
ogy: The secret art of the performer (pp. 238–243). New York and
London: Routledge.

Sauerberg, L. O. (2001). Intercultural voices in contemporary British

literature: The implosion of empire. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Walker, G. (2010). East is east and west is west. IB position paper.

Cardiff, UK: IB Publishing.

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