What is the Effect of Blending Cultures?: A Breakdown of Our Final Presentation

“What is the effect of blending cultures?” This was the question we came up with for our final presentation. At first I thought this question to be a bit broad and generalized, however when I started to build specifics around it in our performance presentation, it seemed to be a wonderful beginning and ending point for both our final and this course. I believe it works because we did not only focus on the aspects of world theatre in this course, but our world culture as a whole. The responsibility of the theatre artist is greatly and directly affected by blending of cultures, and much of our work is dependent upon representation of others. With this conclusion, the question was both appropriate and complex.
We wanted to add something from all three cultures as well as incorporate the blog entries, interviews, and play and cultural presentations. It proved to be a big job, however we tried to take a simple, abstract approach to help keep things clear, succinct, and organized. We also wanted to show how misrepresentation of cultural form and performance happens. I believe that the ethnic stereotypes that are satirized in No Saco are a prime example of what happens when cultures are blended together. I believe that it is important to try to exemplify some of the possible answers to the question that we posed, as well as pose new questions that help to break down the different issues that come along with blending cultures. I chose to do the piece of my interview from Marilyn Akindele because the questions that I asked her and her responses were directly related to the question that we posed about blending cultures, and also it contrasted to the scene from Valdez’s play; I thought it would be a good way to show that all people who are in America from other cultures do not have the same experience, and that unlike the children in the play, does not succumb to the pressures of American society to fit in or be accepted.
One of my goals for making the presentation booklet was to complement the imagery from Sarah's powerpoint, but also show the three cultures that we have studied side by side, emphasizing differences and simultaneously revealing similarities. Also, we worked very hard and very closely together as a group, and I wanted to find a way to unify our vision, and turn something in that could be seen and interpreted as a manifestation and further representation of our group concept and direction. I hope our vision was clear to all who got a chance to see it, and I truly feel as if it helped me to see representation of other cultures as a new responsibility.