The production of space through theatricality and play, and their importance to shaping and retaining personal identity by crossing the borders and visiting the otherness

Abstract

Any personal identity that aims at differentiation of the self and not at imitation of others, has to be supported by social experiences that take place within space and time, in fact by using and producing space and time. Theatricality, that allows individual to choose to cross the borders in order to visit otherness rather than imitate given images, retains and reshapes the abovementioned self-identity.

For the child, the way to find his/her identity through acting upon time and space and through meeting his image form the viewpoint of the other, is by playing.

This article examines the equivalence between play and theatricality, and also discusses whether "places for children" support active fashioning of self, or forces the individuals to comply with the stagnant image of space.