Theatre and Peacebuilding - Ana Correa, Peru

Since my return from Kenya in April, I've been traveling and continue to explore the role of women in community healing. I recently came across the work of Ana Correa from Peru and her exploration of identity and personal narrative through the use of theatre. She reconstructs and violence of the 1990's civil war in Peru in which 70,000 people were tortured, executed or disappeared. During her performances, she sometimes recognizes women in the audience who are characters in her plays, who have suffered the loss of their sons to violence, but they encourage her to continue in order to share their story with others. It is one thing to know a statistic, quite another to know an individual and it is this personal story she is sharing through her theatre.  She explains that "the essence of being is in the encounter" reflecting the role of women who by engaging with one another in conversation, at the watering hole or shop, they discover their shared histories.