Nineteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper discusses how theatrical performance functions as a technology of the twenty-first century soft skills revolution by examining theatre-based corporate training against the backdrop of India’s “VUCA Vortex” (India Global Leadership Report 2014). Based on performance ethnography conducted with multinational corporations, training providers, and theatre groups in India from 2012-2019, I show how companies deploy dramatic games and exercises to teach employees to navigate what is viewed as an increasingly precarious global business epoch. Detailing findings from two training events observed in Gurgaon, India in 2017, I show how theatre is used to cultivate “presence” in the workplace— a metaphysical state of being-and-becoming where employees are taught that eliciting vibes of magnetism, leadership, and style are key to occupational survival in VUCA. These case studies further showcase how VUCA labor economies utilize discourses of critical thinking and the transformational qualities of performance to position workers in a perpetual state of insufficiency and always-becoming with respect to the organization. I conclude by addressing methods of academic praxis which allow scholars and practitioners of the critical humanities to navigate a VUCA consciousness circumscribing our own labors and reflections on contemporary instrumentalizations of humanities skillsets and ethics.