Identity reflections on a Peruvian performative theatre course

Carlos Martin Vélez Salas

doi:10.33178/scenario.20.1.3

Authors

Carlos Martin Vélez Salas Trinity University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.20.1.3

Keywords:

Identity, performative pedagogy, Peruvian theatre, Teaching of Spanish as a foreign language

Abstract

An analysis of the final reflections of eight multilingual students who took an advanced performative course focused on cultural/linguistic identity in Spanish on Peruvian theatre in a university in southwest Texas in 2022 is presented. During and at the end of the semester, students wrote reflections that explored the ways to construct Peruvian characters’ identities in representations. The final reflections which are the data analyzed were related to: the final course representation on campus, the participation of some students in short representations of the course plays during the semester and their opinions about the course in an academic event in a local university, and the feedback of Peruvian theatre professionals and guests via zoom toward videos representing some of the plays’ scenes. Three propositions and a topic drawn from the discourse analysis are discussed. Some possible directions drawn from this study on the teaching of Spanish with a performative pedagogy in similar programs in the United States are mentioned.

References

Allain, P., & Harvie, J. (2006). The Routledge companion to theatre and performance. Routledge.

American Council on the teaching of foreign languages [ACTFL]. (2017). Can-Do-

Statements. https://www.actfl.org/uploads/files/general/Resources-Publications/Can-Do-Introduction-2020.pdf

Benza, R. G., & Tubino, F.A.S. (2021). Educación Intercultural y teatro: un aporte desde la experiencia peruana. Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo, 6, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e12472

Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse. Cambridge University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610295

Bräuer, G. (2002). Body and Language: Intercultural learning through drama. Ablex Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9798400620294

Block, D. (2014). Second language identities. Bloomsbury.

Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of “sex”. Routledge.

Butler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative. Routledge.

Butler, J. (1999). Performativity's social magic. In R. Shusterman (Ed.), Bourdieu: A critical reader (pp. 113-38). Blackwell Publishers.

Byram, M. (2020). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/BYRAM0244

Castillo, D. (2016). Devising as Pedagogical Practice in Latin American Theatre. Latin American Theatre Review, 50(1), 61-77. https://doi.org/10.1353/ltr.2016.0060

Crutchfield, J. (2015). Fear and Trembling: The Role of "Negative" Emotions in a Performative Pedagogy. Scenario: A Journal for Performative Teaching, Learning, Research, 9(2), 101-114. https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.9.2.7

Degregori, C.I. (2004). Perú: identidad, nación y diversidad cultural.https://indigenasdelperu.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/degregori-2004_identidad_nacic3b3n-y-diversidad-cultural.pdf

Delgado del Águila, J. M. (2021). Panorama del teatro peruano contemporáneo. Entrevista a César Ernesto Arenas. Argus-a, 11(42), 1-15.

Delgado Vásquez, M. (1998). Fundamento del laboratorio teatral: el teatro como la última reserva ecológica del hombre (Baseline for theatre laboratory: theatre as the last human ecological resource). (Unpublsihed document).

Delgado Vásquez, M. (2004). La Nave de la Memoria: Cuatrotablas, Treinta Años de Teatro Peruano. Universidad de Minnesota.

Encinas, P. (2024). El teatro pospandemia en el Perú del Bicentenario. Algunos casos relevantes. Conjunto: Revista de Teatro Latinoamericano y Caribeño, 210, 3-7.

Espinoza Domínguez, C. (2009). Mario Delgado: La Sabiduría del Eterno Discípulo. Editorial

San Marcos.

Fernández García, M.I., & Biscu, M.G. (2005). Theatre in the acquisition of Intercultural Communicative Competence: The creation of a multilingual corpus of dramatic texts for the training of future language mediators. International Journal of Learning, 12(10), 327-36. https://doi.org/10.18848/1447-9494/CGP/v12i10

Forman, R. (2014). Speaking L2 in EFL classes: performance, identity and alterity. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 8(2), 99–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2013.766196

Geirola, G. (2004). Theatre in Spanish? Where? Curricular tensions between language and theatre departments. Theatre Journal, 56(3), 468-472. https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2004.0096

Geirola, G. (2019). Pedagogía y deseo: Praxis teatral y creatividad en español en Estados

Unidos. In K. Mauro (Ed.), Artes y producción de conocimiento: Experiencias de integración de las artes en la universidad (pp. 75-112). Argus-a. https://argus-a.org/ebook/721-artes-y-produccion-de-conocimiento-experiencias-de-integracion-de-las-artes-en-la-universidad.html

Gee, J.P. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis: Theory and method. Routledge.

Harman, R. M., & Zhang, X. (2015). Performance, performativity and second language identities: How can we know the actor from the act? Linguistics and Education, 32(A), 68-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2015.03.008

Herlihy-Mera, J. (2022). Decolonizando el Español Americano/Decolonizing American

Spanish. Eurocentrism and foreignness in the imperial ecosystem. University of Pittsburgh Press.

Hernández, P. (2016). The art of production: Staging Latin(o) plays. Latin American Theatre Review, 50(1), 113-131. https://doi.org/10.1353/ltr.2016.0063

Kao, S.-M. & O’Neill, C. (1998). Words into worlds: Learning a second language through process drama. Ablex Publishing.

Kingsbury Brunetto, K. (2015). Performing the art of language learning: Deepening the language learning experience through theatre and drama. Deep University Press.

Kramsch, C. (2014). Identity and subjectivity: Different timescales, different methodologies. In F. Dervin & K. Risager (Eds.), Researching identity and interculturality (pp. 211-230). Routledge.

Kulik, D. (2003). No. Language and Communication, 23(2), 139-151. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5309(02)00043-5

Miller, E. R. (2012). Performativity theory and language learning: Sedimenting, appropriation, and constructing language and subjectivity. Linguistics and Education 23, 88-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2011.02.010

Norton, B. (2019). Identity and language learning: A 2019 retrospective Account. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 75(4), 299-307. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.2019-0287

Pennycook, A. (2004). Performativity and language studies. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 1(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15427595cils0101_1

Piazzoli, E. (2019). Embodying language in action: The artistry of process drama in second language education. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77962-1

Robles Moreno, L. (2022). CUATROTABLAS (LIMA, PERÚ, 1971-) AND MARIO DELGADO (1947-2026). In P. S. Hernández and A. Santana (Eds.), Fifty key figures in Latinx and Latin American theatre (pp. 65-68). Routledge.

Ryan, C. & Marini-Maio, N. (2011). Dramatic interactions: Teaching languages, and

cultures through theatre-theatrical approaches and classroom practices. Cambridge Scholars.

Santucci, A. (2019). The performative foreign language classroom as a site of creative disruption. The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 24(3), 383-389. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003007289-11

Santos Sánchez, D. (2010). Teatro y enseñanza de lenguas. Arcolibros.

Schwartz, A., Magaña, D., Grammon, D., & Loza, S. (2025). Aquí se habla: Centering the local and personal in Spanish language education. De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111323237

Schewe, M. (2020). Performative in a nutshell. Scenario: A Journal for Performative Teaching, Learning, Research, 14(1), 110-117. https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.14.1.7

Torres Núñez, J.J. (1996). Nuevos horizontes para el teatro en la enseñanza de idiomas. Universidad de Almería.

Van Dijk, T. (2001). Multidisciplinary CDA: A plea for diversity. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (1st ed., pp. 95-120). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028020.n5

Vélez Salas, C. M. (2026). Reflexiones identitarias en un curso performativo de teatro peruano en Texas. Decires, 26(35), 125-48. https://doi.org/10.22201/cepe.14059134e.2025.26.35.483

Vich, V. (2024). Interrumpir la interculturalidad. Anthropologica, 42 (52), 222-235. https://doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.202401.008.

Zúñiga, M. T. (2004). Corazón de fuego (1989). In L. A. Ramos-García, & N. Echávez-Solano (Eds.), María Teresa Zuñiga Norero: Teatro, Memoria y Herencia (pp. 3-22). Instituto Nacional de Cultura del Perú: Minnesota-Huancayo.

Zúñiga, M.T. (2018). Génesis. Teatro La Plaza.