Applied Theatre Research - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2014

This article explores the postcolonial history of Theatre for Development in Africa. It argues that a form that had been gradually developing as a socialist-inspired means of enabling people in Africa to discuss politics and social issues they saw as important was transformed from the mid-1980s into a largely instrumentalist tool for conveying information and messages determined by Western donor and African governments and international non-governmental organizations. The article discusses who currently controls the majority of cultural output related to Theatre for Development and some of the methodologies used. It deplores the widespread lack of skilled facilitators, the lack of evaluation of process, practice or impact, and the common practice of using Theatre for Development to tell people what outside agencies determine is good for them rather than engaging in dialogue or promoting the use of the arts to enable ordinary people to ‘speak to power’.

This article attempts to critique and analyse the possibilities and complexities of the manifestations of aspects and dimensions of popular participation in Theatre for Development with particular reference to the University of Zimbabwe’s Manfred Hudson Hall Sanitation Project (2004). It examines the extent to which Arnstein’s classification of levels of participation can be adopted in Theatre for Development projects. It emerges that the adoption of critical and systematic approaches in the analysis of the function of participation in Theatre for Development can be fruitful, seeing that the danger of celebrating manipulative and problematic participation is real. Major emphasis is also placed on the constraints, limitations and potential risks related to various aspects of community participation. The authors contend that this is only achievable within the context of a critical and robust engagement with dynamic and multi-dimensional manifestations of community participation in given Theatre for Development projects.

Playback Theatre has had some success over the past decade in establishing itself as a valid form of therapeutic drama. This article considers its processes and approaches against the background of other twentieth-century developments in drama in education and drama therapies. This article traces the connections between key practitioners from drama in education (including Dorothy Heathcote, who coined the term ‘prismatic illumination’) and the developing praxis of psychodrama, drama therapy and Playback Theatre. Is Playback Theatre truly for self-discovery by the Teller, or for voyeuristic consumption by an audience accustomed to reality television? There has always been a tension in this area of work (be it in an educational or therapeutic context) between the importance of the process/personal journey and the desirability of an observed outcome. The nature of these tensions are examined by this article, and ethical questions are posed regarding the processes being used.

This article uses case stories from drama workshops conducted within primary and secondary classrooms to illustrate the ways in which post-structuralist theory can inform pedagogical design when using drama to engage in critical inquiry. It draws on research theory to illustrate the need for critique of the types of knowledge that are created in the drama and builds on the work of Deleuzian researcher Elizabeth St Pierre, relating her use of metaphor and figurations in research writing to the use of anti-naturalistic conventions in dramatic play. The article discusses the way in which some conventions invite replication of dominant storylines and subject positions while others more readily open up the play space for critical inquiry and the creation of new possibilities. It then proposes the need for new metaphors to enrich the use of drama as a method for critical inquiry.

Enacting an energy forum using solar power-illuminated shadow puppets can serve as an effective method for actively engaging Navajo students in understanding the applicability and relevance of alternative energy in their lives and their communities. This article focuses on an education/outreach project that took place over the course of two days in a science classroom at Thoreau High School (THS) in Thoreau, New Mexico, with predominantly Navajo students. The education/outreach project described in this article is attempting to energize the National Science Education Standards for scientific literacy within the Navajo Nation with a dynamic and interactive artistic medium – solar-powered shadow puppet theatre – that is uniquely suited to the study of alternative energy. It not only supports scientific literacy, but also casts the students as authors of solutions to student-identified energy issues specific to their lives, their land and their concerns.

This article focuses on a devising process linking forum theatre and a Brazilian popular tradition called Boi de Mamão, a mix of music, dance and theatre that has the death and resurrection of the bull as its main theme. Connecting a popular tradition and forum theatre means that we are working on the border between these two forms: the Boi de Mamão, with its characters that are constructed in dialogue with everyday life, with imagination; and forum theatre, which seeks to discuss complex issues related to oppression. Within this contact, the two grow up, allowing us to escape from the constraints that limit both practices: the abandonment of improvisation, the loss of dialogue with everyday life and the limits of imagination. Research on the role of the Joker, who tries to mediate the oppression of the characters without losing sight of the world of the popular tradition, was developed through theoretical and practical proposals for ‘fooling with the joker’.

Wenn die Burka plötzlich fliegt. Einblicke in die Arbeit mit dem Theater der Unterdrückten in Afghanistan. [When the Burqa is Suddenly Bared: Insights from Working with the Theatre of the Oppressed in Afghanistan] by Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn (2013) Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag, Berliner Schriften zum Theater der Unterdrückten, Vol. 5, 220 pp. ISBN: 9 7838 3820 4727.

Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard (2013), by Laura Bates (2012) Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, ISBN 1 3978 1402 2731 48, US$14.99