The Bridge Between Documentary Theatre and Drama Therapy: Our Asian American Theatre Experiment

Abstract

This paper explores how documentary theatre and drama therapy use theatre to address issues of diversity, raise multicultural awareness, give silenced voices a chance to be heard, challenge social injustice, and inspire change in anti-oppression work. The paper is based on the author’s experience as the creator and director of Our Asian American Theatre Experiment, the featured production of UCSD’s 2nd Annual Asian American Theatre Festival in the spring of 2007. This was the same time period as the Virginia Tech shooting (April 16, 2007) and the fifteen-year commemoration of the Los Angeles riots (April 29, 1992).

             Inspired by the many works of documentary theatre dramatists, including Anna Deavere Smith, the author and a cast of fourteen undergraduate Asian American student actors worked with an extensive list of topics usually considered taboo within Asian American culture and communities, using the approach and methods of documentary theatre. The author describes the developmental process, challenges, and experiences during the preproduction, performance, and postproduction phases, including responses from the cast, audience, and community. The author examines the psychologically therapeutic qualities of documentary theatre and the capability of drama therapy to be socially influential by observing how use of the dramatic medium to deal with unspeakable issues and events has healing effects on both personal and societal levels. As supplemental information, the author cites relevant documentary theatre dramatists and drama therapists who link the psychological and social therapeutic characteristics that the two fields share.