Centering Intersectional Empathy in Theatre Creation: Directing as a Dramaturgy of Process

Abstract

Canadian theatre was founded on imperial and Eurocentric values that contribute to the presence of harm, exclusion, and inequity in its creation practices. This thesis reflects the journey of a settler theatre artist dispelling the nature of their cultural conditioning to embrace an anti-imperial worldview that centers intersectional empathy. I present the theory and research behind the development of the Process-As-Relation paradigm, which reflects the practices of intersectionality, anti-oppression, and heterarchical power distribution and ethically considers alternate ways of knowing through the ethnographic research of Indigenous peoples’ cultural perspectives and artistic practice in the theatrical medium. I then chart the application of the Process-As-Relation paradigm to the creative process for a production of Crave by Sarah Kane, presenting insight into practical usage and empirical data on efficacy. While Process-As-Relation was generated to shift my own artistic ontology – how I embody my worldview in artistic practice – it is a system of thought that can aid other theatre artists in addressing their own relationship to imperial thinking in their artistic praxis. This research demonstrates that by incorporating the Process-As-Relation paradigm in curating the artistic process as well as anchoring individual artistic practice, theatre makers can embrace relational thinking that prioritizes wholism and the nourishment of both the individual and the collective.