This document discusses theatre and cultural diversity in three sections. It begins by defining culture and enculturation, then describes three basic types of theatre outside the dominant culture: theatre of identity, theatre of protest, and cross-cultural theatre. Examples are given for each type, including Yiddish theatre, African American theatre by August Wilson and Suzan-Lori Parks, and cross-cultural productions blending different cultures. The document emphasizes that theatre can be a way to see through another's eyes and overcome discrimination and ethnocentrism. National funding like the NEA helps support diverse cultural heritage and strengthen arts in communities.

1. Chapter 3
Theatre and Cultural Diversity

2. Critical Mirror:
Art and Entertainment Reflect Culture
● Culture – the values, standards, and
patterns of behavior of a particular group
of people
● Enculturation – the process by which we
learn our culture

3. Theatre Outside the Dominant
Culture
Multiculturalism –
the endeavor to
overcome all forms of
discrimination,
including racism,
sexism, and
homophobia, so that
people can coexist
peacefully and
attempt to achieve a
pluralistic society.
MichalDaniel/Proofsheet

4. Basic Types
of
Theatre of the People
● Theatre of Identity
● Theatre of Protest
● Cross-cultural Theatre

5. Theatre of Identity
Promotes a
particular people’s
cultural identity and
invites members of
that culture and
others to experience
their joys, problems,
history, traditions,
and point of view.
©MarthaSwopePhotography

6. Yiddish Theatre
During the first half of
the 20th Century,
NYC’s Second Avenue
was known as the
“Yiddish Broadway”
because so many
Jewish theatres were
located there.
HultonArchive/GettyImages

7. African American Theatre
August Wilson’s plays have chronicled the
decades’ long struggle of Blacks in his native
Pittsburgh.
DonIpockPhotography/KansasCityRepertoryTheatre

8. African American Theatre
With Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks
became the first African American woman to win
the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
MichalDaniel/Proofsheet

9. August Wilson: Fences

10. Asian American Theatre
In response to a
white British actor
playing the Asian lead
in Miss Saigon on
Broadway, actor B.D.
Wong asked, “If Asian
American actors
aren’t good enough to
play Asian roles, what
are we good for?”
JoanMarcus/Photofest

12. Theatre of Protest
Objects to the dominant culture’s control and
demands that a minority culture’s voice and
political agenda be heard.

14. Hispanic American Theatre
● El Teatro Camesino
(The Farmworkers
Theatre) was founded
in 1965 by Luis Valdez.
● Valdez’s play
concerning the Zoot
Suit riots in the 1940s
is Zoot Suit .
Universal/TheKobalCollection

16. Cross-cultural Theatre
Mixes different
cultures in an
attempt to find
understanding
or commonality
among them.
Denver Center for Michal Daniel/Proofsheet the Performing Arts

17. Cross-cultural Theatre
The play Black Elk Speaks , which was adapted
from an oral biography of a Sioux holy man, tells
the story of white America’s westward expansion
from the Native American perspective.
Japanese director Shozo Sato stages Western
classics such as Medea, Faust, and Macbeth in
Japanese Kabuki style.

18. Theatre as a Way of Seeing through
Another’s Eyes
Ethnocentrism – privileging how one sees other
cultures through the lens of one’s own
MichalDaniel/Proofsheet

19. Keeping Theatre of the People Alive
“A healthy state needs vigorous, lively, pluralistic debate,
not enforced acquiescence to a bullying majority.”
Tony Kushner, playwright
L.Mueller/Staff/TheCharlotteObserver

20. National Endowment for the Arts
● The NEA enriches
our nation and its
diverse cultural
heritage by
● supporting works of
artistic excellence
● advancing learning in
the arts
● strengthening arts in
the communities
throughout the
country
Jane Alexander, former head of the NEA,
testifies before Congress in the early
1990s.
TerryAshe/TimeLifePictures/GettyImages

21. Curtain Call
“Cultural diversity is as necessary for
humankind as biodiversity is for nature.”
UNESCO’s Universal Declaration
on Cultural Diversity