Applied Theatre Research - Volume 1, Issue 1, 2013

While a number of exponents of critical pedagogy argue that it is an appropriate framework for challenging dominant discourses that seek to perpetuate oppressive power relations and social inequalities, others have begun to counter-argue that it still remains a ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’. By continuing to construct the ‘world’ as divided between binary oppositions of race, class, gender and ethnicity, critical pedagogy tends to gloss over more complex relations of power in which these categories are fluid rather than fixed. This article argues that in post-conflict situations such as post-apartheid South Africa, where the dividing line between perpetrators and victims tends to be blurred, the dividing line between oppressor and oppressed becomes less clear and more slippery. The article proposes the adoption of an alternative post-critical pedagogy that can transcend such rigid boundaries.

This article draws on the potential of a dramatic text or pre-text to increase the impact on participants. Impact is defined here as changes of perception and expectations – as an agent for breaking down habitus, which is a system of social reproduction that explains how discourses and reiterated options are kept and counter-arguments are rejected. The possibility of change requires remapping the parameters of place, identity, history and power. Through this, a teacher may lead students to cross borders in terms of knowledge. Drama in the curriculum, particularly Dorothy Heathcote’s approach, is explored as a way of breaking down habitus and of democratizing differences.

This ‘heritage theatre’ programme was an innovative venture in 2009 by the Hong Kong Drama/Theatre and Education Forum as a way of introducing history education to primary and secondary school students in Hong Kong. Through an interactive performance given in two ancestral halls of the oldest Tang clan, which were categorized and protected by the government as Grade 1 heritage architecture, students and teachers were given the chance to discuss the relationship between history and heritage buildings, as well as the meanings of and difficulties in preserving these buildings. I was a consultant and participant-researcher in this study. This article\ highlights a critical incident that occurred at the final rehearsal, which pushed us to rethink the function of heritage theatre as museum theatre, and the methodological elements we need to take into consideration for the best facilitation of such an applied art form.

Lead artist Sarah Cole invited Sally Mackey to research Nest (part of an arts residency in Basildon, United Kingdom, in 2007–08) as part of Mackey’s longer-term inquiry into how we ‘perform’ place. Could Nest practices provoke new insights into the role performance has in articulating or shifting our relationship with place? After explaining the context of the Nest project and articulating what might be meant by ‘a performance of place’, the article deconstructs two themes that emerged during Nest, which are offered as potentially important for future work of this kind. First, evidence suggests a significant response to place from even the most temporary of denizens, the visiting or ‘cuckoo’ artists, implying that even when performing there briefly, strong relationships with a place can develop. Second, an argument is made for ‘excess’ contributing to performing place – for example, arising from transgression, the non-quotidian and boundlessness – that can enhance participants’ affective response to, and memories of, place.

This article explores the use of applied drama as a learning medium for trainee teachers who had not previously experienced the use of drama as a pedagogic approach, in an effort to develop professional relational skills, including conflict management. A quality content analysis approach was used, based on the responses of 64 participants to a questionnaire completed immediately following a drama workshop experience. One main theme – ‘the nature of learning through the medium of drama’ – and three other categories – ‘bridging theory and practice in teacher education’, ‘fostering courage and self-esteem’ and ‘cognitive engagement, shifts in perspectives and empathy’ – emerged from the analysis of the data. Such analysis indicates that applied drama could provide an effective teaching strategy for developing professionalism.

This article explores narrative and role as key elements of an applied theatre project with women in an Australian prison. The research story has arisen out of the first stages of data analysis from the project, where a range of sometimes conflicting narratives and roles emerged as prevalent within the workshop process itself, as well as its surrounds; and where narrative and role helped to articulate the complexity of the applied theatre practice/research experience. The practice and research methodologies for the project were inextricably entwined, furthering James Thompson’s (2003) notion of ‘theatre action research’ and Hughes et al.’s (2011) ‘practised method’. These practitioner/researchers recognize applied theatre as both the process and the object of inquiry, a dynamic relationship that complicates both the research narrative and the roles played within it.

Is it possible to evaluate drama and Theatre for Social Change in a way that contributes to the body of knowledge and is meaningful for those involved? Applied theatre is often claimed to have a huge potential, and projects are described as having a strong impact. Requested by external funders, evaluation reports are produced around the world. Here, three projects – from Palestine, Serbia and Sweden/ European Union – are described. The cases are used to discuss how to evaluate Theatre for Social Change in a fruitful way: What is the result of the evaluations? What kinds of conclusions are drawn? How credible, useful or generative are these evaluations? Special attention is given to the evaluators’ role. If the evaluators express their personal and professional preferences, the outcome may be a more credible evaluation –‘objectivity’ through declared values. Still, dilemmas related to different interests and time perspectives remain to be solved.

This study attempted a phenomenological investigation of theatre-involved individuals’ accounts of their experience with drama. The authors’ aim was to explore the experiences of individuals involved with drama in order to understand the needs behind this choice and subjective rationale of this involvement. Twelve participants with varied involvement and experience with drama were interviewed and transcripts were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological approach. Adopting an existential perspective on existence and authenticity, an attempt was made to interpret participants’, often contradictory, ideas about their experiences. Findings highlighted two important trends. First, people choose drama because it provides them with a place with flexible rules and sense of reality where they could risk their existence as individuals and their identity – something that gives them meaning and a feeling of being alive. Second, they do this by voluntarily confronting the ‘look of the others’, which they simultaneously crave and are averse.

Dorothy Heathcote (1926–2011) was an English drama educator, specializing in work with young people and in schools. She was a pioneer in developing and demonstrating what have since become variously known as drama-in-education, process drama and drama pedagogy, and she was almost certainly the most influential drama teacher of the twentieth century. She was a primary influence on the Applied Theatre Research Editorial Board, and on many of the Advisory Boards, which is why her obituary has been included. This is an edited version of a eulogy delivered at her Life Celebration at St Werburgh’s Church, Spondon, near Derby in England, on 11 December 2011.

ACTING TOGETHER: PERFORMANCE AND THE CREATIVE TRANSFORMATION OF CONFLICT, VOLUMES 1 AND 2, CYNTHIA E. COHEN, ROBERTO GUTIÉRREZ VAREA AND POLLY O. WALKER (EDS), (2011) Oakland, CA: New Village Press, Palgrave Macmillan, 200 pp. Volume 1: ISBN 978 0 9815593 9 1, US$21.95; Volume 2: ISBN 978 1 61332 000 6, US$21.95

THEATRE IN HEALTH AND CARE, EMMA BRODZINSKI (2010) London: Palgrave Macmillan, 200 pp., ISBN: 13 978 1403 9970 81, £52.50