THE INSPIRATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SAUDI DRAMATIC TEXTS: CONCEPTS, COMPONENTS, AND TRANSFORMATIONS

Abstract

This study examines the concept of dramatizing cultural heritage in Saudi theatre as both an artistic and cultural practice based on drawing upon heritage material and reshaping it within a dramatic structure capable of performance and interpretation. In this context, heritage is invoked in the dramatic text as an active cultural component that contributes to constructing the theatrical vision and producing meaning. The study seeks to define the concept of dramatization and its mechanisms by clarifying its relationship to the transformation of heritage materials into dramatic forms, along with the artistic procedures this process entails. The study also addresses the concept, nature, and impact of heritage on the formation of identity, regarding it as the accumulated body of tangible and intangible elements transmitted across time. Furthermore, it explores the concept of employment, its objectives, and its levels, focusing on the transition of heritage material from its referential presence to its aesthetic formation, semantic production, and cultural function within theatrical discourse. The study then examines the presence of heritage in Arab and Saudi theatre, highlighting the trajectory of the Saudi theatrical experience. The study concludes that the dramatization of heritage is founded on the reproduction of heritage within a modern dramatic discourse that combines cultural memory with the questions of contemporary reality. Thus, dramatization becomes an artistic and cultural mechanism that reveals the capacity of heritage for continuity and transformation, as well as the ability of the Saudi dramatic text to invest in identity-based cultural legacy.