Book Project

My current book project, based on my PhD dissertation in Performance Studies at the University of California, Davis (2022) is titled Affective Facilitation: applied theatre and (de)humanization in Latin American contexts. It aims to contribute to applied theatre by re-valuing its ‘impact’ from a hemispheric perspective, given that most applied theatre theory comes from the Global North, reproducing western/colonial epistemologies. A motivation for my research is the sparse dissemination of approaches to applied theatre coming from Latin America, which is not solely a geographical designation, but a counterhegemonic perspective (present within the US). My manuscript shows how Latin American facilitation can work against dehumanization (i.e. isolation, containment and premature death that disproportionately affects those deemed “less-(than)-human”) by centralizing affect and embodiment. These important aspects of applied theatre are too often overlooked when the focus is placed only on social impact, which can be instrumentalized within neoliberal agendas. To move applied theater theory beyond institutional ideals of  productivity, I pose that focusing on experiences of feeling more alive, animated or connected lets us see overlooked, somatic facets of human interdependence, vulnerability and responsibility to others and the world, which are central to facilitation work.

The book essentially traces the trajectory of my learning as a facilitator, from the need for affect and care in immigrant detention to the importance of embodied co-presence in the context of transitional justice, to the somatic impacts on “privileged” audiences witnessing testimonial performances. In addition to analyzing my own and others’ contemporary facilitation practices in Latin American contexts of state-sanctioned violence and separation (immigrant detention, deportation, displacement, forced disappearance and assassination) between 2012 and 2026 in Colombia, Chile, California and Virginia, I examine the history of Latin American facilitation. Chapter 2 “Affect and Care: a non-method” and Chapter 4 “Moving-With: a path to implicated witnessing” develop my theory of facilitation through my own practice-as-research, while Chapter 1 “Latin American Theatre Facilitation” and Chapter 3 “Facilitating Feminine Relationality in Resistance to Violence” engage external case studies to contextualize, test and expand my ideas. Each case study offers a distinct way to look at the problems and possibilities of theatre facilitation in relation to (de)humanization, with the overall aim of moving the conversation from a focus on individual self-development to collective responsibility.

I propose an understanding of this work from below in which transforming relations to potentiate alternative ways of thinking/feeling/being(-with) is in itself an impactful, liberating arts practice. I find that ‘affective facilitation’ can foment humanization—a sense of our inherent interdependence with all life—not via a set methodology but rather critical not-knowing and openness to being changed. This requires context-specific approaches that shift relations to allow for much-needed experiences of human connection and care and it necessitates the cultivation of life-affirming relations, a specifically feminine capacity, as the female body is the ‘first territory’ of both subjugation and resistance to colonial/patriarchal/capitalist paradigms of violence. Based in conversations between applied theatre and performance studies, using methods of practice-as-research, ethnography (observant participation, action research and interviews) and archival research, my book places practice-based methods in dialogue with practitioner reflection and critical theories (from affect to decoloniality, human rights and memory), offering insights from a Latin American perspective that can inform contemporary theatre facilitation practice and theory worldwide.