A supporter holds a MeToo sign outside a court for a sexual harassment case in Beijing, China December 2, Campana uses drama to address trauma while raising awareness about important issues such as sexual harassment in non-Western contexts. This is part one of a two-part interview, please see part two here. We do this by embodying characters and performing stories.
I look at it as a participatory action type of research, and very intertwined with the social sciences. CR: Does it make people more empathetic towards the issues at hand? JC: I think it does. I think it definitely makes audience members connect to issues more. CR: What does that intersection of theater and social science look like?
And what are the dynamics of theater as an element in the public space? JC: A lot of the work that I do is particularly interested in traumatic experiences that people have.
Things that happen to us, that come against us like a blunt force, cause us to completely alter the way that we have existed previously, and the way that we see the world in which we live.
I use those words, drama and theater, very differently. Theater is a performance specifically for an audience, whereas drama can be non-product based. It can be people investigating roleplay without anyone watching them, for their own purposes. For their own knowledge. CR: What role do you see for theater in Egyptian culture?
