The Social Circus Theatre of the Pang Daeng Nok Youth: the Applied Theatre Process of Shaping the Identity of the Dara-ang Youth in the Pang Daeng Nok Community in Chiangdao District, Chiangmai Province

Abstract

          The youth in the Pang Daeng Nok community, Chiangdao district, migrated from Myanmar. They have been facing with issues of socio-cultural stigmatization due to having no legal status, and external development pressure, which is mechanization since 2010. The youth in Pang Daeng Nok are not allowed to go outside the village since they have no legal status. This paper is a research about how the Social Circus Theatre and the applied theatre process of Makhampom theatre (from 2013-2017) has empowered together with shaping the identity of the youth in the Pang Daeng Nok community. Applied Theatre is a multi-dimensional learning process and a human development. The youth learns about one-self and uses conflicts and issues in the community to create a performance piece in order to perform in a community and for people outside the community. The outcome of this process is to make the youth themselves question about the socio-cultural stigmatization of their ethnic group together with de-marginalize them from getting caught in the ethnicity bias and stereotype of being a stateless person in Thai society.