Narrating Migration through Theatre. Gabriele Vacis and Personal Care Theatrical Practices

Abstract

The article focuses on "Pensieri Migranti" and "Colloqui d'amore", two theatrical and pedagogical projects carried out by playwright and director Gabriele Vacis and his “Personal Care Theatrical Practices Institute” in 2017-2018. Key players of the projects were migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. Through the analysis of Vacis's work, we will investigate how an artistic experience can be a powerful and unique form of alternative narrative, as opposed to the discourses on and stereotyped representations of migration usually offered by the media and dominant narratives. Vacis employs a number of theater's tools and strategies to multiply the possibilities of inclusion and active participation of migrants. The first of these tools is the "Schiera” (the array of the group of participants), a distinctive characteristic of his theater. The “Schiera” is seen as a thorough educational activity that can lead, through a collaborative work with the entire group involved, to the awareness, acknowledgement, and respect of the Other, the same respect that Emmanuel Lévinas identifies as the indispensable basis of every authentically ethical relationship.