HANDBOOK

WORLD ART’S HANDBOOK – A manual for tomorrow’s theatre (Manual)

A reference point for all those public and private actors who use the performing arts in multicultural groups as a tool for social and cultural inclusion, to understand how otherness is constructed, and commit to overcome it. Over the last ten to fifteen years, a tendency has developed in all performing arts to act through art in social contexts, with two aims: a cultural-artistic one, typical of the theatrical dimension, and a social one, concerning the empowerment of the person and of relations between people. Multiculturalism, which characterises the contemporary world marked by significant migration flows, calls specifically for the need to understand and subsequently analyse cultural differences related to approach, relationship, proxemics, and the use of language itself. The observation of the practices implemented to work with multicultural groups, respecting and listening to the differences, in the mediation for the creation of a common ground, and the systematisation of the same, tracing principles and guidelines, are at the basis of the creation of a manual that thematises the multicultural and multidisciplinary approach implemented within the project. The manual itself could become a reference point for all those public and private actors who use the performing arts in multicultural groups as a tool for social and cultural inclusion, for understanding and overcoming otherness and difference in an enhancement of the various and heterogeneous cultural heritages. As an innovative working tool it will be a source of inspiration and comparison, open to additions and updates determined by the continuous progress of experiences in these areas of intervention. It may also constitute a solid starting point for a literature that wants to continue to improve in the constitution of post-colonial practices where the subordination of one culture to another is continually questioned by pre-established models.