Ricardo Sarmiento Ramírez
Rehearsing Futures: A Critical History of Theater and Performance
Seminar, Englisch/Deutsch, 2 ECTS, 2 SWS
Thursdays, 10–14 h, bi-weekly, 8 dates: 15.10., 5.11., 19.11., 3.12., 17.12.2026, 14.1., 28.1., 11.2.2027
Hardenbergstr. 33, room 151

Anmeldung auf Moodle ab / Registration on Moodle begins 12.10.2026: https://moodle.udk-berlin.de/moodle/course/view.php?id=3325
Einschreibeschlüssel / Enrollment Key: ruin

Who writes the history of theatre? Which bodies, practices, and forms of knowledge have been left out of its narratives? What happens when history is told through other bodies, other memories, and other territories? This seminar rethinks the history of theatre and performance by shifting attention away from dominant historiographical narratives towards works, artists, and practices that have developed beyond the traditional centres of cultural production. Drawing on case studies primarily from the Global South and other historically marginalized contexts, we will explore how different political, social, and cultural realities have generated distinct ways of understanding performance, embodiment, memory, and collective creation.
Rather than simply expanding the existing canon, the seminar asks what happens when we change the questions through which theatre history itself has been written. How do our understandings of theatre and performance change when we approach history through embodied practices, oral traditions, archives, collective memory, and situated forms of knowledge? Instead of producing an alternative history, the course invites participants to critically examine the categories that have shaped dominant narratives and to engage with more plural and situated perspectives.
Combining critical readings, collective discussion, the analysis of theatre and performance works, audiovisual materials, and practical exercises, the seminar encourages participants to move continuously between theory and practice. Together, we will explore performance not only as an object of study, but also as a method for investigating history, activating memory, and rehearsing new ways of imagining the present and the future. Participants will encounter performances, films, archival materials, manifestos, and artistic experiments from diverse cultural contexts while developing tools to analyse, discuss, and relate these practices to broader questions of history, politics, and artistic production. Topics include critical historiography, archival and counter-archival practices, embodied memory, decolonial perspectives, collective artistic practices, and performance as a site of knowledge production.The seminar is open to students from all disciplines interested in theatre, performance, visual arts, critical theory, artistic research, and contemporary cultural practices. No previous knowledge is required. The course will be taught in English, with the possibility of participating in discussions in German.

Leistungsanforderungen für den unbenoteten Schein / Fulfilment criteria for ungraded accreditation: Active participation; short written or performative reflection; collective presentation or practice-based assignment.

Ricardo Sarmiento Ramírez is a dramaturg, transdisciplinary artist, and educator based in Berlin. They hold a Master of Arts in Spatial Strategies from Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin and a Bachelor’s degree in Dramaturgy and Visual Arts from the Universidad de las Artes in Cuba. Their artistic and research-based practice focuses on theatre, performance, and collective processes, with an emphasis on dramaturgical research, embodied practices, and non-linear approaches to history and knowledge transmission. They worked in international and institutional theatre contexts, including documentary and collective performance projects, and have teaching experience in both academic and non-academic settings. From 2015 to 2018, they worked as a teaching assistant in European Theatre History at the Universidad de las Artes in Cuba and hav led workshops and courses for diverse groups, including children and non-professional participants, in intercultural contexts.