Professor Diana Taylor diana.taylor@nyu.edu
Graduate Asst. Alissa Cardone ac327@nyu.edu
Unit
Two
Performing
Colonialism: 16th, 17th & 18th Centuries
With the conquest, theatre became an instrument of colonization
and evangelization. Impressed by the highly developed visual culture
of the Americas, and finding the linguistic obstacles almost insurmountable,
missionaries claimed that the native inhabitants "only learned
through their eyes." As a means of accelerating the conversion
process, they introduced evangelical theatre, drawing from their knowledge
of medieval Spanish theatre. New versions of 12th century European
mystery plays, Corpus Christi celebrations, and Moor vs. Christians
plays began to be performed in the Americas, but now staged in indigenous
languages, with indigenous actors, traditions, props, and adapted
to reflect the contemporary concerns. While the European traditions
were clearly visible in these productions, they underwent change as
the performances were adapted to new circumstances. While theatre
was introduced into the Americas as a vehicle of colonization, scholars
have long been fascinated by the ways in which indigenous populations
used these imported forms as a means for transmitting their own world
view and strategies of resistance.
