Playing inclusion. Le arti e le pratiche performative come risorse per la promozione dei processi interculturali

The theme of migration, because of its strong cultural relevance, offers a preferential context in which the polyvalence of contemporary theatricality is played out and reveals across the board its widespread, though often unstated, commitment to act locally in pursuit of an inclusive society. The essay introduces the relationship between theater and migration by proposing to reflect on the human condition through some key concepts such as identity, otherness, ontological finitude, interdependence and reciprocity, power and powerlessness. By observing and studying different experiences around the world, the authors note some peculiar functions, resources and limitations of the theatrical process. In particular, what emerges in the different experiences considered in both social and professional theater is the positive impact on human bonds that seems to foster the consolidation of the group, community and social network. Through a plurality of performing arts and practices, the meeting of peoples with different cultural backgrounds becomes a possibility for mutual acquaintance, new intercultural production, witnessing and storytelling of self to others. In conclusion, the panorama outlined can be interpreted in the sense of a tentative and manifold response of the performing arts to the urgency of social changes and political tensions whose strength seems to lie in the plurality of avenues experimented with and the intertwining of professional theater and social theater.