Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

Second Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Baram, Uzi

Area of Concentration

Literature and Anthropology

Abstract

This thesis examines the function of an ecological theater as a method of heritage interpretation through research and practice. My first chapter explores definitions of memory, heritage, and interpretation, detailing what a successful interpretive project looks like. I then go on to define what constitutes a production of ecotheater by detailing its goals of coalescing the divide of nature and culture, encouraging performances to center the more-than-human world rather than focusing on exclusively human stories. The chapter concludes with examining the 2016-17 production of Bear by the Unreliable Bestiary, exhibiting how a piece of ecotheater uses interpretive tools to achieve its goals. The second chapter documents the case-study performance for this thesis, WAKE: Living With/In Disaster, created in response to the 2017 hurricane season. Taking recorded memories and oral histories of past hurricanes, the performance aims to accurately and respectfully represent the past and highlight the social and racial injustices faced in the aftermath of disaster. The third chapter evaluates the production as a piece of ecotheater, and ultimately how it is an effective method of interpreting heritages and heritage issues involving people and the environment. Finally, I analyze the reception of the performance, and identify the success of the tools an ecotheatrical work brought to an interpretive project.

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