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Promoting reciprocity through theatre: interdisciplinary reflections from the S-Word laboratory

ABSTRACT This article stems from practice-based research conducted during the 2018 S-Word conference hosted by the University of California, Riverside. As a psychology professor and theatre professor, we take a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to examine the roles of reciprocity, empathy, and power dynamics. We ground our exploration in a participatory theatre exercise that emphasized varying levels of eye contact and interaction prompted by playing with the dynamics of observing and being observed. We employ psychology and neuroscience research on areas such as eye contact, mutual gaze, and power to make relevant connections for the actor-audience dynamics. We contend that by shifting perspective taking, theatre and participatory theatre exercises contribute to mitigating power imbalances between actors and their audience, thus making space for increased empathic connections.