Abstract
Learning, experiencing, and making theatre not only nurture artists but equip human beings to journey within themselves and understand the world they belong in. Guang Ming College, unique from other Performing Arts colleges in the Philippines, teaches Performing Arts in an environment informed by Humanistic Buddhism. Part of its curriculum is a course on Humanistic Buddhism in Performing Arts, which tackles how performing arts shall be experienced and expressed in the virtue of humanism – with its creation, collaboration and management. Guided by literature in applied theatre, drama and theatre in education, and Goffman’s “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,” - this paper investigates the importance of drama and theatre in education in performing every day in a highly contextualized space. Guided by the virtues and theories of/on Humanistic Buddhism, this paper juxtaposes the significance of how lived experiences become meaningful with mindfulness. This case study is a dramaturgical analysis of Guang Ming College’s performing arts students on how they lived and performed their everyday lives at the College. This paper, using theatre as a metaphor for daily life, looks into the nuances of how learning, experiencing and making theatre equipped these students to become dramaturgs of their own lives. Through the lives of these students, this paper concludes, reaffirms, and exhibits that/how theatre is a sanctuary for transformation where one can (re)discover the self, others, the self in the other, society, and the world to be mindful on one’s role in day-to-day adventures and challenges.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Dramaturgy, Humanistic Buddhism, Theatre in Education, Applied Theatre
