“The Group Is that Who Protects You in the Face of Shame”: Self-change and Community Theater Participation in an Argentine Agro-City

Abstract

Community theatre is a social development activity where amateur actors form a diverse group to create and act out stories that result from improvisations related to their personal difficulties and life experiences. Community theatre is a source of reflection, self-knowledge and self-development. But, in the conservative agricultural town in Argentina studied in this chapter, very few people dare to participate in community theatre. Most of the population feels “embarrassment” and “shame” when participating, given that the metropolitan habits of performing leisure activities outside home or work are not common practice. Nor is it common to manifest public protest or dissent. Those who do venture to take part in community theatre express that they have lost their sense of “shame”. A new subjectivity is developed by the individual who manages to “cleanse” his problems, to be the “owner” of his time and to attach less relevance to his social reputation. This chapter analyses the way in which community theatre participants can overcome shame. It describes the theoretical background stemming mostly from social anthropology, presents the context of the ethnographical case study and discusses community theatre as a way to transform shame. The principal conclusion is that collective “exposure” to “shame” is key to its elimination and its transformation into pride, and that shame should always be understood as a cultural construct. This chapter recommends group activities, such as community theatre, that can “protect” individuals from shame and contribute to self-transformation.