Knowing how to play or being playful? The playful/ontic approach and intergenerational theatre in Canada and India

James Thompson’s 2004 article ‘Digging Up Stories’ suggests Theatre for Development’s focus has mostly been on epistemic concerns. Projects emphasize participants learning techniques or exercises to be applied in various contexts. Thompson proposes Theatre for Development should draw back from epistemic concerns to work with the ontic concerns of communities. In light of Thompson’s analysis, I can see my time-planning process and performance have placed ontic considerations as primary and epistemic concerns as secondary. Working as assistant director of GeriActors and Friends (G&F), an intergenerational theatre company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and while consulting towards the creation of an intergenerational theatre company in Tamil Nadu, India, I have employed playfulness as the primary state of being for the theatrical processes. Playfulness can be utilized in intergenerational theatre and Theatre for Development projects to embrace Thompson’s proposed focus on the ontic approach.