Social distancing without emotional distancing?1

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of society and no more so than in educational applications of theatre for children in schools. This article explores the complexities of what applied theatre/drama offer the young to think critically and develop empathetic human relationships crucial to sound mental health. The article’s authors reaffirm ways in which applied theatre/drama and TIE have contributed to healthy social development through contributions to the Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum. Cited are recent projects with compromised praxis in the face of the pandemic. Identified is a shift in educational priorities that are returning to traditional approaches in place of wider heuristic social education. Consequent moves to online teaching and imposition of social distancing has led to concerning levels of social distancing potentially impacting negatively on mental health of the young. However, applied theatre/drama disciplines play a particular role in facilitating emotional maturity through critical thinking.

Applied Theatre and Sexual Health: Apertures of Possibility, Katharine E. Low (2021)

Review of: Applied Theatre and Sexual Health: Apertures of Possibility, Katharine E. Low (2021)New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 323 pp.,ISBN 978-1-349-95975-4, h/bk, €77.99

Bringing absence to the fore: Conversations around two experiences of applied theatre with homeless people in Spain

This article addresses the potential of applied theatre to build spaces of visibility and recognition for homeless people. It describes the logics, achievements and challenges of Teatro de la Inclusión and Fuera de la Campana, two theatrical experiences coordinated by the authors in southern Spain. These cases have been investigated and documented through ethnographic procedures that have included participant observation and in-depth interviews with the group’s participants, among other data-collection techniques. Through the voices of their protagonists, the authors critically discuss the perceived benefits of the experiences by studying their potential for recognition and the artistic teaching methodologies put into play. They also analyse the convergences and divergences in the aesthetic-political conceptions of each of the groups and their consequences in their respective contexts.

Theorizing ethical questioning for applied theatre practice

This article examines ethical questioning as an inquiry process germane to making ethical choices in applied theatre research. Focusing on reflexivity through reflection before, in and on action, I consider ethical questioning as a framework to amplify resistance, promote participation and strengthen decolonization in the research process. I situate ethical questioning within critical pedagogy for applied theatre practice and construct an ethical questioning framework that rests on both individualism and collective processes. I conclude by briefly examining some processes in my doctoral research and reflecting on the implications of ethical questioning on applied theatre and the call to turn from a morality debate about ethics to a political act rooted in the awareness of oneself in relation to the other.

Reflexive interpretation: A critical post-structuralist perspective on applied theatre as research

In this article, I will trace the history of the qualitative applied theatre as research (ATAR) approach to explore how researchers may enrich their analyses and writings about ATAR-generated data with a critical post-structuralist (CPS) approach to reflexive interpretation (RI). RI is a compound methodology that considers four levels of interpretation. First, it asks researchers to consider how they handle empirical material. Second, it encourages researchers to analyse how they make their acts of interpretation conscious to themselves and their reader(s). Third, it calls for reflection on how sociopolitical and ideological contexts shape the research endeavour. Finally, it provokes researchers to investigate how authority is at play in the representation of data and findings, and in the writing of the final research output. I will consider how an RI methodology firmly rooted in a CPS paradigm can enable researchers to create analyses and representations of data that adequately portray the complexities of participants’ lived experiences in our chaotic and often contradictory postnormal world.