Nascimento’s Book Praised in Theatre Journal

A book by Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento, associate professor of theater, received positive reviews in the March 2010 issue of Theatre Journal. The book, Crossing Cultural Borders Through the Actor’s Work was published by Routlege in 2009.

According to the review: “Cláudia Tatinge Nascimento asserts that much critical attention given to intercultural performance tends to appraise the production as a whole, typically assessing the work of the director— especially Eugenio Barba, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Brook, and Jerzy Grotowski—while discounting the role of the intercultural actor, her training, commitment, and contribution made in collaboration with the director. Shifting focus toward the intercultural actor’s training as a ‘cultural border-crosser,’ Nascimento offers ‘an examination of the intercultural actor’s process that acknowledges her autonomy and agency as an artist’ transgressing a critical bias where the actor is often viewed as subservient to the director’s vision. …  The book is a welcome addition to any cultural theatre curriculum or, for that matter, any advanced acting program.”

The online German theater studies site theaterforschung.de also reviewed the book, saying “the author focuses on cultural border-crossers, actors and actresses who actively embody cultural hybridity and consequently become agents in the intercultural process of making theatre. She concentrates exclusively on the actor and the actress at work and his/her intercultural potential but also takes the spectator’s active role as a receiver into account.”