Collective Outsider Theatre Practice: Creating an Intercultural Hybrid Form of Practice-Based Conversation

Abstract

This paper describes a ten-year exploration of the self and social experience which fused together two disparate theatrical forms, Persian Dramatic Storytelling and Real Fiction, to create an intercultural hybrid performance medium. It harmonised and humanised two artists’ practices, and liberated them. This study outlines both art forms and the collaborative work of Scott Welsh and Elnaz Sheshgelani (2009-2023). It describes their process of creating a cultural and performative hybrid form which opens up new ways of thinking about text, movement and performance. As an example of this hybrid form, the authors draw upon an upcoming performance at La Mama (a Melbourne theatre) about the experiences of a stray pet cat, who spent two years on the street. Titled ‘Moosh the Hobo Cat’, the piece uses practices established through this collaborative artistic work. The authors then apply this form to their work as Higher Education teachers, and consider the pedagogical spaces that it opens up for students and teachers in university classrooms.