מ"אות קין" ל"אות": דרמטורגיה של מופע חברתי-אומנותי

The use of theater and drama in the field of education blends artistic and social ideas in diverse ways. In recent years, researchers have warned of an imbalance in the relationship between education and art: teachers tend to attach more importance to the quality of the educational process than to the quality of the artistic process. The applied approach (Applied Theater, Applied Drama, Applied Performance), an "umbrella concept" in the context of using theater in social processes, is permeating the field of education, and directs teachers to "conscious areas of compromise". This paper examines the ability of the applied dramaturgical tool to facilitate artistic discourse in the socially motivated work of "non actors". This article is, in effect, an autoethnographic look by the author – a community theater facilitator of "non actors", sighted and blind – at her own creative work. Strategies of applied dramaturgy, incorporated into the collaborative work of the facilitator and the participants, are examined here based on their influence on the design of the theater production "instead of pictures" (2008-2009). The findings suggest that although the characteristics of the creative process belong to the applied theater arena, its creators have developed an artistic-ideographic performance language. This language combines artistic ideas with the way in which they are inscribed, resulting in an artistic production where characteristics of blindness are no longer a "mark of Cain" but an "artistic mark". The language of the performance offers an alternative to the perception of blindness as a handicap. The article therefore offers an action plan for educators and social creators engaged in the planning and directing of performances, ceremonies, and parties. This plan of action offers a way out of the "artistic compromise area", a compromise that typically characterizes theatrical work with "non actors".