Performing Strangers: Revisioning the Political Divide

After her groundbreaking study of emotion and politics in the book Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Russell Hochschild reflects on the various ways in which drama draws its audience over an “empathy wall” and into the “deep story” of the other. How do people within “in-groups” talk about people in “out-groups?” How can the theater community find stories that illuminate the emotional magic required to invite former enemies (the US and Germany, or blacks and whites in South Africa) into cooperative partnerships? Hochschild is joined in conversation by professional actor and researcher Benjamin Russell.