Paper short abstract:

The paper addresses theatre projects in contexts of migration in Basel, Switzerland. It explores the different ways in which senses of foreignness and of belonging are created by doing theatre and how migration both changes theatrical traditons and keeps them alive.

Paper long abstract:

In the last decade, theatre projects that address migration and participants with migrant backgrounds have become popular in Switzerland. In this kind of projects, knowledge and cultural expressions stemming from different cultural backgrounds serve as assets by providing the basis for co-authored narratives and specific aesthetic elements in western theatre performances. However, migrant groups have been active promoters of theatre well before this new interest, namely in theatrical societies that are often linked to migrant associations. This paper presents ethnographic research for a PhD-study on three theatre projects in contexts of migration in Basel, Switzerland: Two projects that addressed young players with different migrant backgrounds and one production of the Basel English Panto Group, an English-speaking group that produces performances in the British "Christmas Pantomime"-tradition.

The paper explores the different ways of how these theatre projects link migration and Swiss society and especially focuses on the creation of place by doing theatre: In the projects, the practitioners engage with the city of Basel, establish ties to their home countries, and create spaces of belonging while producing imagined places on stage. Intangible cultural heritage as it is here expressed through theatre is therefore regarded to be strongly linked to identities and to carry agency: Not only do the theatre projects simultanously promote integration and a heightened sense of cultural difference, they also keep theatre traditions alive while changing them.