Religion, Theatre, and Performance: Acts of Faith

Abstract

Recent decades have brought a remarkable explosion of robust scholarship in the fi elds of theatre and performance studies, enlivening these closely related disciplines in eclectic and exciting ways. Much of the most consequential work being done in these fi elds draws heavily from cultural studies and concerns issues of identity. The scholarship generated around theatre and performance through gender studies, critical race theory, queer studies, and post-colonial theory is among the most sophisticated, developed, and energetic in the disciplines. But comparatively speaking, theatre and performance scholars have had little to say about religion and spirituality. This may seem odd because religion is, among other things, a marker of identity that, like race, gender, and sexuality, overlaps, and often intertwines with, other markers. But this situation is changing. In recent years, there has been a growing, though still nascent, energy in scholarship focusing on the intersections of religion and theatre/performance.1 This collection is intended to advance this development by gathering together essays that address critical issues, provide illuminating case studies, identify crucial questions or points of concern, stimulate an expanding engagement with this rich area of research, and suggest fertile directions and apt models for further inquiry. It is my aim that this collection begin to sketch the outlines, contours, and fl ashpoints of a broad, but still focused, area of concern whose implications will have a meaningful and continuing impact on the ways in which we teach, practice, think about, and contest the fi elds of theatre and performance. The chapters in this volume are all written by experts in the relevant fi elds and are intended to be accessible to students and non-specialists, while also useful and challenging to professional scholars and artists.