Performance Workshops, Liminal Scenes: My Emancipation as a Facilitator

Abstract

For several years, I have worked with the concepts of performance and co-creation workshops (Walmsley, 2013) as social spaces for discussion and exchange (Lubicz-Nawrocka, 2019; Matarasso, 2019). Through observation, focus groups, and collaborative summaries, I have studied the interactions between participants as performance co-creators and my emancipation as director and facilitator. In this study, I reflect on power relations among participants; the relationship with space and the breaking of the “Italian-style theater” model of the 19th century; the immersive and experimental nature of artistic creation of a performative installation project whose outcome is unknown to everyone; and the use of technological and individual elements for the construction of space and atmospheres. I conclude that these liminal performance workshops, caught between workshop and performance, become political spaces where participants explore empathy, inclusion, resilience, and creativity.