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

Process drama in Chinese education: Possibilities and challenges in governmental policy papers and the curriculum of moral education

The article explores the potential of applying process drama in moral education in Chinese schools. By conducting a thematic review of the current national curriculum and policy documents from both historical and contemporary perspectives, the interconnection between the role of art and moral cultivation in China is discussed. Through an analysis of the national curriculum, the article suggests that applying process drama in school education can contribute to learning in the curriculum areas of both aesthetic and moral education. However, the existing commingling of concepts and definitions influences the actual drama practices in China. Consequently, a discussion of terminology is brought in, as well as an argument for the need to include drama as a discrete subject in schools, in addition to its function as a method for educational purposes. A process drama sample from the author’s drama praxis is included. The overall aim of the article is to contribute to an extended understanding of educational drama and theatre in a Chinese context and to gain new insights into possibilities and challenges for the future implementation of drama in education in China.

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.

Playback Theatre, social justice and empathy: A diffractive review

This article explores the relationship between social justice and Playback Theatre practice. In lieu of a diffractive approach, this study breaks away from representational forms of research such as the traditional literature review. Instead, the author strives to review the selected studies as alive and dynamic, with the ability to activate new insights when creatively played with and re-examined. This review traces selected Playback Theatre research that has sought a deeper understanding of empathy in Playback Theatre practice and its relationship with social justice. The author foregrounds what has resulted from these studies regarding empathy in Playback Theatre and their relationship with Nancy Fraser’s social justice model, particularly the cultural dimension of recognition. This review offers a social justice definition relevant to Playback Theatre while seeking to explore how this informs the artistic dimension of Playback Theatre enactments.

Language acquisition and identity-making: Applied theatre as a mediating practice with Syrian refugees in Europe

This article addresses the potential use of applied theatre in facilitating new language acquisition among refugees who are resettled in European countries such as Germany. The article charts the applied theatre work carried out by one of the authors with Syrian refugees in Europe, with a special focus on participant reactions to the host country’s expectations surrounding language acquisition and identity-making. The authors challenge current ‘integration’ practices that prioritize focused language learning as a major indicator for the refugees’ re-nationing process, arguing for higher consideration of the trauma surrounding displacement, especially when refugees have first arrived in their host community.

Research-based theatre across disciplines: A relational approach to inquiry

Research-based theatre (RbT) is an innovative research methodology that draws on theatre practices and conventions to engage in and share research. It is an inherently collaborative and relational methodology, inviting research participants, artists and researchers to take part in embodied data generation, analysis and knowledge-exchange activities. This methodology encompasses writing, rehearsing and performing a research-based monologue, scene or play. In this article, the authors share three recent examples from interdisciplinary projects where researchers and artists engaged with different communities to dramatize data using an RbT methodological approach. To add to literature in the field, the authors consider their experiences leading RbT projects in three disparate fields: theatrical, social and therapeutic. The authors explore the question of how RbT transforms relationships and how relationships transform RbT.

Facilitating departures from monolingual discourses

This article locates and critiques monolingual discourses within applied performance praxis in the United Kingdom and South Africa, suggesting starting points for facilitating multilingual actors’ vast linguistic resources. Set out as a theorized reflection of praxis, I interrogate how the facilitator can draw from actors’ linguistic resources without perpetuating dominant and potentially damaging language ideologies, by which I refer to the socially shared beliefs about language that shape and are shaped by language use. I discuss the powerful language ideologies connected to so-called ‘standard’ English and constructed by dominant institutions to discover how they are reproduced in performance praxis. I also analyse performance examples engaging complex linguistic conditions related to both student and refugee groups in the United Kingdom and South Africa to discuss varied facilitation approaches in context. Through my reflection, I reveal the complexities and opportunities for the facilitator navigating the socio-culturally and politically fraught terrain of language.