"This volume explores what it means for applied theatre practice to be conducted in an ethical way and examines how this affects the work done with communities and participants. It considers how practitioners can effectively balance aesthetics and ethics in the process of creating performance, particularly with relatively inexperienced and often vulnerable groups of people who are being asked to both tell and stage their stories. While Part One offers an overview of critical debates and the editors' reflections on their own practice, Part Two presents a range of international case studies that explore how the theories and issues are worked out in a variety of diverse practices. The two sections bring together both theoretical and practical ways for theatre-makers to examine the ethics of their applied theatre projects. In Part One, readers are presented with a critical introduction to ethics in applied theatre practice, informed by the thinking of philosophers, scholarly literature on applied theatre, and the editors' own experience, as they consider the question - What is the good? For practitioners working in the field of applied theatre, it provides recommendations for community-based ethical approaches working with principles of voice, agency, collaboration, relationality and reciprocity. Part Two presents a range of international case studies that consider ethics from varying critical perspectives and contexts, including projects in Australia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Covering work with participants of many ages, from children to seniors, the case studies include indigenous perspectives on a language revitalization project with the Hul'q'umi'num' people of British Columbia; the work of a professional dance theatre company working with addicts and people in recovery; interactive drama used in an educational context in Nigeria, and applied theatre projects in situations of trauma with refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos, among others"--

Philip Taylor offers strategies for using theatre to raise awareness, propose alternatives, provide healing, and implement community change.

This book analyses the work of applied theatre practitioners using a new framework of ‘responsivity’ to make visible their unique expertise. In-depth investigation of practice combines with theorisation to provide a fresh view of the work of artists and facilitators. Case studies are drawn from community contexts: with women, mental health service users, refugees, adults with a learning disability, older people in care, and young people in school. Common skills and qualities are given a vocabulary to help define applied theatre work, such as awareness, anticipation, adaptation, attunement, and responsiveness. The Applied Theatre Artist is of scholarly, practical, and educational interest. The book offers detailed analysis of how skilled theatre artists make in-action decisions within socially engaged participatory projects. Rich description of in-session activity reveals what workshop facilitators actually do and how they think, offering a rare focus in applied theatre.

Applied Theatre: Ethics explores what it means for applied theatre practice to be conducted in an ethical way and examines how this affects the work done with communities and participants. It considers how practitioners can balance aesthetics and ethics when creating performance, particularly with relatively inexperienced and often vulnerable groups of people who are being asked to both tell and stage their stories. The two sections bring together theoretical and practical ways for theatre-makers to examine the ethics of their applied theatre projects. Part One offers an overview of critical debates and the editors' reflections on their own practice. It introduces readers to ethics in applied theatre, informed by the thinking of philosophers, scholarly literature and the editors' own experience, including Indigenous perspectives on ethics and theatre. For applied theatre practitioners, it provides recommendations for community-based ethical approaches working with principles of voice, agency, care, service, collaboration, presence, relationality and reciprocity. Part Two presents a range of international case studies that explore how the theories and issues are worked out in a variety of diverse practices. It considers ethics from varying critical perspectives and contexts, including projects in Greece, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Canada. Covering work with participants of many ages, the case studies include the work of a professional dance theatre company working with people in substance abuse recovery in the UK, interactive drama used in an educational context in Nigeria, and the complexities around an applied theatre project on race in the US.

Applied Theatre: Aesthetics re-examines how the idea of 'the aesthetic' is relevant to performance in social settings. The disinterestedness that traditional aesthetics claims as a key characteristic of art makes little sense when making performances with ordinary people, rooted in their lives and communities, and with personal and social change as its aim. Yet practitioners of applied arts know that their work is not reducible to social work, therapy or education. Reconciling the simultaneous autonomy and heteronomy of art is the problem of aesthetics in applied arts. Gareth White's introductory essay reviews the field, and proposes an interdisciplinary approach that builds on new developments in evolutionary, cognitive and neuro-aesthetics alongside the politics of art. It addresses the complexities of art and the aesthetic as everyday behaviours and responses. The second part of the book is made up of essays from leading experts and new voices in the practice and theory of applied performance, reflecting on the key problematics of applying performance with non-performers. New and innovative practice is described and interrogated, and fresh thinking is introduced in response to perennial problems.

"Applied Theatre is the first study to assist practitioners and students to develop critical frameworks for planning and implementing their own theatrical projects. This reader-friendly text considers an international range of case studies in applied theatre through discussion questions, practical activities and detailed analysis of specific theatre projects globally."--Provided by the publisher.

The Applied Theatre Reader is the first book to bring together new case studies of practice by leading practitioners and academics in the field and beyond, with classic source texts from writers such as Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Mikhail Bakhtin, Augusto Boal, and Chantal Mouffe. This book divides the field into key themes, inviting critical interrogation of issues in applied theatre whilst also acknowledging the multi-disciplinary nature of its subject. It crosses fields such as: theatre in educational settings prison theatre community performance theatre in conflict resolution and reconciliation interventionist theatre theatre for development. This collection of critical thought and practice is essential to those studying or participating in the performing arts as a means for positive change.

This book examines the history, ethics, and intentions of staging personal stories and offers theatre makers detailed guidance and a practical model to support safe, ethical practice. Contemporary theatre has crossed boldly into therapeutic terrain and is now the site of radical self-exposure. Performances that would once have seemed shockingly personal and exposing have become commonplace, as people reveal their personal stories to audiences with ever-increasing candor. This has prompted the need for a robust and pragmatic framework for safe, ethical practice in mainstream and applied theatre. In order to promote a wider range of ethical risk-taking where practitioners negotiate blurred boundaries in safe and artistically creative ways, this book draws on relevant theory and practice from theatre and performance studies, psychodrama and attachment narrative therapy and provides detailed guidance supporting best practice in the theatre of personal stories. The guidance is structured within a four-part framework focused on history, ethics, praxis, and intentions. This includes a newly developed model for safe practice, called the Drama Spiral. The book is for theatre makers in mainstream and applied theatre, educators, students, researchers, drama therapists, psychodramatists, autobiographical performers, and the people who support them.

Often operating outside the bounds of theater buildings, applied theater involves the practice of theater in communities, social institutions, and with marginalized groups. In this study, Thompson (drama, Manchester U., UK) examines various programs (mainly in prisons and development settings) to assess the claims that applied theater can bring a

This book reflects the changes in technology and educational trends (cross-disciplinary learning, entrepreneurship, first-year learning programs, critical writing requirements, course assessment, among others) that have pushed theatre educators to innovate, question, and experiment with new teaching strategies. The text focuses upon a firm practice-based approach that also reflects research in the field, offering innovative and proven methods that theatre educators may use to actively engage students and encourage student success. The sixteen essays in this volume are divided into five sections: Teaching with Digital Technology, Teaching in Response to Educational Trends, Teaching New Directions in Performance, Teaching Beyond the Traditional, and Teaching Collaboratively or Across Disciplines. Study of this book will provoke readers to question both teaching methods and curricula as they consider the ever-shifting arts landscape and the potential careers for theatre graduates.