Masking in Contemporary Theater: A recontextualization of the operation of masking within the frame of postdramatic theater, dramaturgy and contemporary debate in theater studies.

Abstract

The present research strives for a recontextualization of the operation of masking within the frame of postdramatic theater practice and academic debate, with a special eye for how the dramaturgical functions of masking have been rearranged in the contemporary stage that is no longer structured under the hierarchy of dramatic text. The first chapter maps the role of masking within XXth century theater studies and a range of acting techniques, then to present postdramatic theater as the overall context of this research. The second chapter elaborates on how dramaturgy will function as an analytical apparatus to comprehend the functions masking can perform in contemporary staging. It also presents an interdisciplinary conceptual framework to relate masking to topics such as intentionality in human-technology relations, embodiment, self-staging practices and social interaction. The third chapter consists of the dramaturgical analysis of four performances in order to test this interdisciplinary and recontextualised analytical apparatus around masking in postdramatic theater. The cases of study are Bimbo (Boogaerdt & van der Schoot, 2012), Vortex (Menard, 2011), Pandora's Dropbox (Heitmann, 2017) and Remote Santiago (Rimini Protokoll, 2015). One relevant conclusion deals with how exhaustion (including its physical, material and ideological meanings) and masking meet in postdramatic stagings. Other conclusion presents future opportunities for theater studies in which a recontextualised lecture of masking can allow for further interdisciplinary collaborations.