Engaging Difference through Embodied Acts of Understanding: A Theory-Based Metho

In this work I advance my proposal for Acts of Understanding, an acting focused method, which serves as a theatrical intervention toward bridging the gaps of difference that have been used to divide and pit us one against the other. Joining the tradition of thinkers like Victor Turner and Erving Goffman who have equated life to theatre, I employ a dramaturgical lens to my analysis of existing and prevailing divisive narratives that come together to form a socially constructed script with predetermined roles and outcomes for the actors who perform them. While accounting for systemic influences on prevailing narratives of otherness that promote acts of oppression, my approach is unique in that it focuses more closely on microrelational and interpersonal performances that manifest themselves in day-to-day, real world exchanges. Understanding that theoretical analysis alone will not be what saves us from the visceral manifestations and performances of oppression, I turn to theatre as a practical and accessible intervention toward social justice as seen in other theatrical interventions toward social justice like Augusto Boal, Bertolt Brecht, El Teatro Campesino, and South African Theatre. I distinguish the method from others by its theoretical and methodological underpinnings, as well as its application. The Acts of Understanding method merges Constantin Stanislayski's system of character development and acting for the stage and Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of understanding as foundational tenets and approaches. Acts of Understanding, from within the safety of the rehearsal studio, employs dialogical and improvised acting games and exercises that are geared toward fostering an awareness of our interconnectivity, as well as render subconscious thoughts and actions to our consciousness. The use of the rehearsal studio and dialogical improvisational acting games and exercises allows for the suspension of authorial prescribed dominant narratives and creates a space for the individual voice of participants to co-author new narratives with the self and the other through the self and the other. Acts of Understanding does not prepare participants for a traditional theatrical performance, the actor training, however, seeks to provide its participants with a set of skills that can be applied in their day-to-day lives, skills that allow them new ways of seeing and engaging with difference. As a result, the Acts of Understanding method becomes a rehearsal for life.;Keywords: co-authorship, dialogue, theatrical interventions, improvisation, Bakhtin, Stanislavski, social justice, practical method, acting, difference, privilege, oppression, interconnectivity, understanding.