Language Discontinuity: The Expressions of Non-Narrative Experimental Theatre (2012)

Undergraduates: Rachel Lewallen, Victoria Facelli

Faculty Advisor: Tony Perucci
Department: Communication Studies

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The process I embarked upon this past summer in Berlin, Germany was to explore the modes of performance that could foster a true and “felt” experience of communication between a performer and audience member who do not share a common language. In classical modes of performance, narrative and the spoken word take chief communicative priority. It is believed, then, that the first crippling factor in theatre “comprehension” might be a language barrier – my hypothesis sought to deconstruct this idea of speech as the sole method of on-stage communication. Coming together with a local modern dance group, my faculty advisor and co-performer, a UNC Alumni, I spent each day in rehearsal learning, teaching and exploring dance, and gesture and abstract movement – all of which culminated in a large 20-part piece entitled Keinen Grund. In explorations of modes which give focus over to movement, sound or gesture (as opposed to narrative) I found a richer and more dynamic transaction of meaning to be possible between performer and audience.