La antropología teatral en escenaThe Cross Border Project

Abstract

This work focuses on the relationship between Theater and Social and Cultural Anthropology. Initiating this dialogue, the Italian theater director Eugenio Barba coined the term Theater Anthropology, trying to find universal principles in acting practice. To this end, in 1979 he founded the International School of Theatrical Anthropology (ISTA). For Barba, it is a study on actors and for actors (which includes dancers). Try to discover some regularities that are based on the extra-daily use of energy, which he will call pre-expressiveness. To do this, following the teachings of Jerzy Grotowski, he uses the Theatrical Laboratory formula as a true research space. The Theatrical Anthropology of Barba is defined as the study of man in a situation of representation.From Anthropology, Víctor Turner approaches the Theater from the study of ritual. Studying the processes that take place within societies, he focuses on the conflicts that put the social structure at risk. Note that these social dramas, as the author calls them, are in the form of the rites of passage described by Van Gennep. Rituals are necessary to maintain order in society; they function as escape valves by allowing a liminal space-time, in which society finds the appropriate adjustments. Theater director and anthropologist Richard Schechner takes the lead and delves into the study of performance. Ritual and theater are manifestations of performances, moving between efficiency and entertainment. The anthropological study of theatrical forms leads to the understanding of Barba's Theatrical Anthropology as a branch of Cultural Anthropology. The theater is but one more form of the expression of a culture...