Theatrical Approach Research Articles

Enacting Social Justice: Exploring Applied Theatre’s Influence on Anti-Oppressive Social Work

As a profession committed to social change, social workers must engage in practices that encourage clients and communities to reflect on oppressive conditions to later envision and create new equitable and inclusive possibilities. Applied theatre, such as theatre of the oppressed, is an interactive theatrical approach that engages in ‘world-building’ across space, time, issues, and emotions. The embodied nature of applied theatre allows social workers, clients, and communities to imagine, dream, and practise new possibilities for social change. This paper offers a review of existing literature on applied theatre and theatre of the oppressed that promotes social justice and liberation in social work education and practice in the United States and globally.

APPLICATION OF LINGUO-THEATRICAL APPROACH IN TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES TO PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Background. Professional training of a teacher traditionally includes elements of theater pedagogy as a condition for mastering professional pedagogical skills; it has a special role to play in the preparation of a future foreign language teacher. The ability for language self-education develops in conditions of a deficit of an authentic linguistic and cultural environment, which can only partly be compensated by the visualization of educational material and the use of computer technologies. The authors reveal the didactic potential of linguo-theatrical technologies, which make it possible to imitate linguocultural markers and models of the country of the target language and, thereby, contribute to the development of a multicultural linguistic personality in a student at a pedagogical university. The purpose of the study is to analyze the specifics of using theatricalization, dramatization and staging techniques in foreign language classes at a pedagogical university. Materials and methods. The main research method is a comparative analysis of sources that present a multi-paradigm description of the introduction of linguistic and theatrical elements into the process of teaching a foreign language. Quantitative and qualitative indicators were identified through the use of verbal communication methods (questionnaires and oral communication). Results. The verifiability of the research results was confirmed by the introduction of a set of communicative and theatrical tasks developed by the authors into practice to ensure the implementation of a linguistic and theatrical approach to teaching students of the Department of Foreign Languages at the KSPU named after V.P. Astafyev (Krasnoyarsk). The technique of theatricalization (stage or role-playing embodiment of the features of foreign language discourse) has the greatest didactic potential; the technique of dramatization (situational personification of characters) can be used to a lesser extent - this is explained by the need to have background knowledge of an authentic communicative situation; staging (stage production with the use of theatrical props) is characterized by the complexity of its implementation and increased labor intensiveness, both on the part of the teacher and on the part of the students, which, nevertheless generates increased interest and contributes to a more solid formation of language and speech skills.

Active Learning on Students 'Interpersonal Skills Impact: An Online Theater Approach

This study aims to examine the improvement of interpersonal skills through the application of active learning in the teaching and learning of art education. The approach used is the theatre-play approach. Theatre games are used as a fresh and appropriate approach to learning art education subjects through various types of games that are applied with various theatre techniques, including improvisation, role playing, physical exercise, and voice acting. The subject of art education is a theoretical and practical one that requires high focus during learning. Therefore, theatre games are applied to encourage active learning and prevent students from getting bored when learning is conducted online. Students play, act, improvise, and sing while learning. This qualitative study involved eight Form 5 students at the Malaysian Art School using observation and interview methods. The study applies social learning theory and constructivist learning theory. The data was thematically analysed using Nvivo software. Findings found that active learning takes place in learning through the application of a theatre game approach and highlights the interpersonal skills of students. Two-way communication occurs in every activity because the activity is carried out in groups. Studies on the learning of art subjects that apply this active learning through theatre games are believed to promote confidence and stimulate students to improve their interpersonal skills without realising it.

A Museum Theatre Approach to Museum Communication in Durban, South Africa

This article explores how museum communication can be enhanced in museums in Durban, South Africa, using the Old Court House Museum (OCHM) in Durban, South Africa, as a point of departure for analysis and discussion. The aim is to close the gap between the humanities disciplines through disciplinary hybridisation while focusing on exploring the intersection of theatre arts and museums through applied theatre (AT) strategies to enhance museum communication. Grounded in Richard Schechner’s multidisciplinary approach to performance studies (PS), it incorporates the viewpoints of Dwight Conquergood on PS. The argument is that the humanities disciplines are historically and conceptually linked through cultural performance. The research employs qualitative methods, including historical-analytic analysis, key informant interviews (KIIs), and direct observation. The findings suggest the practice of the museum theatre (MT) concept in some parts of the South African cultural ecosystem, but with scant attention on Durban municipal museums.

Gledališka pedagogika: ko drama postane učni pristop

Theatre art can be included in education in different ways and with different goals. The first two pillars of theatre pedagogy – theatre literacy and theatre creation – have as their goal familiarisation with theatre art and theatre creation. The third pillar of theatre pedagogy – learning through theatrical approaches – understands theatre (or theatre approaches, methods and techniques) not only as a goal but primarily as a means for achieving broader educational goals. Drama in education (DiE) represents such a theatrical approach, which can be applied to various subject areas. In addition to educational goals, we also achieve aesthetic goals – we learn through drama and about drama. Drama in education belongs to the so-called process forms of drama, as it does not envisage a final product, that is, a performance. It originates from an improvised symbolic play/role play, and due to educational goals, it can also be argued that it indicates a learning approach in which the teacher/theatre pedagogue uses a combination of methods and techniques of theatre pedagogy connected in a meaningful dramatic structure. In addition to creative theatre activities, drama in education devotes most of its time to the negotiation and structuring of meanings directed by the teacher/theatre pedagogue. Even if a precise definition of drama in education is not possible, its key characteristics are processability, role play, improvisation, collectivity, dialogue and a symbolic dimension.

Theatricality and synthetic image as means of staging memories

In this article, I will recognise the acceptable form and methods of staging memories within theatre, relying on qualitative features and spatial and temporal characteristics of memories. Memory is an essential part of building one’s identity. Being so, actively reviewing the importance of past personal and collective experience is necessary for establishing a constructive relationship towards the future. Considering the qualitative features of memories and the means and reasons for creating memories, I will use theatricality as a potential theatrical approach and a method that I will call subjective. I will also try to define the synthetic image as a possible content of theatricality whose function is to express memories in the form of complex sensory material towards which we have both emotional and rational relationships. I will define the subjective method as being primarily inspired by the experience of Ariane Mnouchkine, Jerzy Grotowski and Pina Bausch, who placed intimate experience within a theatrical framework, whereby the emphasis is on the process of expressing the original human condition at the service of the play, without any reference to documentary theatre.

Effectiveness of Readers Theatre to Enhance English Reading Fluency in Fifth Grade: Action Research in Thrimshing Higher Secondary School

Researchers have identified the reading problem in the rural schools in Bhutan, and students hardly read English text. Therefore, researchers have resolved to conduct action research study to investigates the effectiveness of Readers Theatre as an intervention strategy to enhance reading fluency and motivation among fifth-grade students in the school. The researchers identified a decline in reading habits and fluency among students, particularly in English, despite recognizing the importance of reading for academic success and personal development.
 A mixed-method design was employed, combining quantitative data collection through pre- and post-tests with qualitative insights from structured interviews from 24 participants. To enhance the reading fluency, Readers Theatre approach was integrated into exploring its potential impact on motivation and fluency.
 The results indicate significant improvements in reading fluency among participants after the intervention, with many exceeding expectations. Qualitative data revealed that Readers Theatre not only improved reading skills but also engendered enthusiasm and confidence in reading. This study highlights the critical role of motivation in successful reading interventions, emphasising that motivated readers are more likely to become proficient ones. The findings underscore the importance of innovative and engaging reading strategies in fostering reading fluency and motivation. This research offers valuable insights for educators and policymakers, advocating for the adoption of such strategies to empower students with essential reading skills and cultivate a lifelong love for learning.

Addressing SDG16.2: Eliminating violence towards children – An applied theatre approach

We offer a case study of a long-running Aotearoa New Zealand-based applied theatre programme, Everyday Theatre. As both academics and Everyday Theatre practitioners, we explore how the programme addresses the aspirations of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.2, which is centred on eliminating violence towards children. Our reflections are informed by the qualitative data collected in our ongoing discussions as facilitators, our reflective journals, teacher evaluations of the programme, and a series of collaborative research workshops. We investigate the role and place of the drama conventions of teacher-in-role, pre-text, aesthetics, and framing. They are potent constituents of participatory theatre practice that can provoke both students and teachers to collaboratively conceptualise themselves and each other as active, responsible, critical, and empathetic agents for social change. These explorations throw light on how applied theatre practice can form small but significant contributions to engendering opportunities for students and teachers to consider how they could change their own future narratives, creating more socially cohesive local communities, and, in this way, addressing SDG 16.2. Cover image: photo by WOKANDAPIX on Pixabay

Gender and Authority in Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom (1976)

This article gives a feminist examination of Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom (1976). This play is in reality, Churchill’s feminist lens through which the playwright offers an account of interactions of gender and authority via the 17th-century witchcraft trials in England from a distinctly feminist standpoint. It is – as a research article – a freshly developed consideration of that age that might build a different sort of history to the authorized male-made. In a significant way, part from this article, is to assess Churchill’s in terms of form and substance. The dramatist personifies revolutionary ideas presented in a fresh and original way. She majorly concentrates on the female-subjective status via her dramatic depiction and also builds a new women’s portrayal through the eyes of women instead of men. Janelle Reinelt (1989)’s feminist theory and the problem of performance is adopted to set a focus on two major concepts, namely gender and class. The subject of Vinegar Tom deals with extremely sensitive themes such, subjugation of women within a masculine society, rights, gender formation, women identity and sexual orientations. Such controversial issues are depicted via the employment of several inventive instruments and approaches. The majority of Churchill’s use of theatrical elements consists of doubling, monologues, music, and songs. Taking everything into consideration, this article searches in Churchill’s Vinegar Tom dramatically, theatrically, and historically. Using a variety of theatrical approaches to historical reconstruction, it portrays Churchill as a self-identified socialist feminist.

Navigating the Theatrical Battlefield: A Management Perspective on Violence in Edward Bond's Rational Theatre

Violence and aggression have become pervasive in the modern world. This research paper sets out to examine the themes of violence and aggression in Edward Bond’s rational theatre. What is most striking about Bond’s plays is his representation of visible violence and insanity on an amplified scale and his refusal to accept the conventional limits in his critique of society through an unconventional structuring of the elements of violence and aggression. Bond’s plays navigate through different forms of crude and macabre forms of violence. By managing such forms of violence on the stage, Bond’s theatre for social change challenges diverse misleading rationalist and realist interpretations, myths, and fallacies of violence and dismantles them through unconventional treatment and interrogation of aggression and irrationality. The article draws on various theoretical perspectives on violence as set forth by Domenach (1981), Galtung (1981), Joxe (1981), and Freire (1970). This close reading of Bond’s texts helps establish that the foundations of Bond’s rational theatre are, in fact, laid on politics of violence portrayed in all its transgressive excesses, ambivalence, and graphic visuality. This alternative reading of Bond’s political vision through a range of theoretical perspectives also helps appreciate the breadth and depth of Bond’s political vision. The paper also conceptualizes the notion of Arts-Based Training (ABT) that delves into the application of improvisational theatre techniques within management development. Understanding a phenomenon through a theatrical approach proves to be effective for advancing management development by actively engaging managers in an in-depth exploration of problems and the creation of solutions.

Community-based theatre: Critical pedagogy for promoting social connectedness recovery in the post-pandemic era

The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has persisted for several years. After a period of prolonged social isolation, people may be especially vulnerable to developing issues, such as social withdrawal. Theatre has been utilised in some instances to inspire individuals to foster critical thinking and encourage them to lead a positive life. This study applies a community-based theatre test case to examine theatre practices within the framework of critical pedagogy to address emerging issues in the post-pandemic era. It aims to deliberate upon the ongoing process of the theatre workshop as well as the efficacy of theatrical approaches on an individual’s personal, interpersonal and sociological difficulties. This is meant to gain a better understanding of theatre practices that operate on the edge between critical pedagogy and sociocultural intervention. The findings suggest that community-based theatres effectively inspire participants to reflect on and take action to escape oppression. Therefore, it is an innovative strategy for promoting social connectedness while supporting post-pandemic responses. This study contributes to the theoretical, practical, and experiential development of critical pedagogy by providing support for individuals, groups, and the society.

Rethinking the Difficult Patient: Formative Qualitative Study Using Participatory Theater to Improve Physician-Patient Communication in Rheumatology.

Effective physician-patient communication is crucial for positive health outcomes for patients with chronic diseases. However, current methods of physician education in communication are often insufficient to help physicians understand how patients' actions are influenced by the contexts within which they live. An arts-based participatory theater approach can provide the necessary health equity framing to address this deficiency. The aim of this study was to develop, pilot, and conduct a formative evaluation of an interactive arts-based communication skills intervention for graduate-level medical trainees grounded in a narrative representative of the experience of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus. We hypothesized that the delivery of interactive communication modules through a participatory theater approach would lead to changes in both attitudes and the capacity to act on those attitudes among participants in 4 conceptual categories related to patient communication (understanding social determinants of health, expressing empathy, shared decision-making, and concordance). We developed a participatory, arts-based intervention to pilot this conceptual framework with the intended audience (rheumatology trainees). The intervention was delivered through routine educational conferences at a single institution. We conducted a formative evaluation by collecting qualitative focus group feedback to evaluate the implementation of the modules. Our formative data suggest that the participatory theater approach and the design of the modules added value to the participants' learning experience by facilitating interconnection of the 4 communication concepts (eg, participants were able to gain insight into both what physicians and patients were thinking about on the same topic). Participants also provided several suggestions for improving the intervention such as ensuring that the didactic material had more active engagement and considering additional ways to acknowledge real-world constraints (eg, limited time with patients) in implementing communication strategies. Our findings from this formative evaluation of communication modules suggest that participatory theater is an effective method for framing physician education with a health equity lens, although considerations in the realms of functional demands of health care providers and use of structural competency as a framing concept are needed. The integration of social and structural contexts into the delivery of this communication skills intervention may be important for the uptake of these skills by intervention participants. Participatory theater provided an opportunity for dynamic interactivity among participants and facilitated greater engagement with the communication module content.

Women's Justice: Alan's Wife and the Defense of Silence

Abstract: Elizabeth Robins and Florence Bell's Alan's Wife (1893) shocked its first audiences with the brutality of the piece, but the play holds greater historical interest for its fusion of nineteenth-century theatrical approaches. The Naturalism associated with the independent theater movement is apparent in the debates about eugenics, capital punishment, and women's roles embedded in the piece, but Robins and Bell also borrow from commercial melodrama the device of the silent heroic character. In the final scene, Jean Creyke does not speak until her closing monologue, responding instead solely through eloquent gesture. The choice of gestural rather than spoken language draws on the moral certainty of melodrama to impart a political argument, anticipating the performance-based methods of the campaign for women's suffrage.

García de la Rasilla, Carmen, and Jorge Abril Sánchez, eds. Immature Playboys & Predatory Tricksters: Studies in the Sources, Scope and Reach of Don Juan

García de la Rasilla, Carmen, and Jorge Abril Sánchez, eds. <i>Immature Playboys &amp; Predatory Tricksters: Studies in the Sources, Scope and Reach of Don Juan</i>

Rock and Plovers—A Drama in Three Acts Involving a Big Musical Event Planned on a Coastal Beach Hosting Threatened Birds of Conservation Concern

Big musical events often coincide with natural spaces, and therefore they may have an impact on sensitive ecosystems. Here, a story of events that took place following a big event on an Italian beach within a Special Protection Area (SPA; hosting embryonic shifting dunes and plover birds of conservation concern) is reported. Following a theatrical approach to conservation, this story unfolds in three acts (Act I: The Premises; II: On the Field; III: Long-Term Effects) that include the social targets (‘actors’) involved (i.e., the pop star’s staff, ONG, institutions, and local stakeholders) as well as the critical issues and conflicts. This experience provides some conservation lessons: (i) big musical events can have an impact on sensitive socio-ecosystems; (ii) the intrinsic value of coastal ecosystems has been underestimated since the site selection was carried out by decision makers with inaccurate/inappropriate use of digital tools; (iii) communication among the private organizers, public institutions, ONG, and people was poor; (iv) the availability of huge economic resources has made the local municipality vulnerable; (v) digital social processes increased polarization between opposing parties with an increase in local conflicts among Public Agencies; and (vi) these conflicts had long-term cascade effects on the nature reserve’s management. To communicate conservation stories, I encourage conservation practitioners to use a theatrical approach to communicate local events with socio-ecological implications—increasing awareness of human–wildlife conflicts and cognitive bias emerging after unshared decisions—using simplified conceptual frameworks.

Рerforming Capture в видеоиграх и новая актерская практика постцифровой эпохи

Motion capture technology for creating an animated image of an artist is becoming increasingly widespread in animation, cinema, and computer games. The motion capture methodology allows translating the acting into different virtual worlds and implementing creative data such as plasticity, voice, drama, in completely unexpected forms, which expand the boundaries of traditional artistic anthropology and the psychology of art. The most multilevel and multi-variant form of motion capture, performing capture, can reflect the plasticity of the artist in the finest details. This article raises the question of the need to study new aspects of the methodology of acting creativity. This question arises in the process of creating images of computer games, against the background of scientific understanding of various forms of motion capture technology and their modeling in the digital environment. The ways the artist exists during the implementation of scenarios of high-budget computer game projects are characterized by multivariance in the development of the image when setting the most important tasks in a situation of multiplicity of game strategies, by an expansion of understanding the original event, and by the dynamics of the role pattern. The interactive nature of gaming projects requires an understanding of the categories of actor existence in the synthesis of classical (Stanislavsky system) and post-dramatic theatrical approaches.

Health inequalities, ethnic minorities and COVID19: interactive theatre workshop drawing on a qualitative interview study

BackgroundThe COVID19 pandemic revealed and deepened existing inequalities. These were exacerbated by institutional and interpersonal racism and poorly conceived public health messaging. As a result, people from minority ethnic backgrounds in the UK were disproportionately affected. We conducted a creative interdisciplinary session to support interactive reflection and discussion on these inequalities between the actors and the audience, who was comprised of public health scientists and NHS practitioners, to come up with practical ways to address ethnicity-based health inequalities going forward. MethodsWe prepared a 45 min interactive scenario drawing on forum theatre approaches, which are based on the Theatre of the Oppressed: a set of dramatical techniques created by Augusto Boal. To understand what to include the interactive scenario we carried out a workshop built on a narrative interview study with 70 adults who had Covid between March, 2020, and November, 2021. We adopted a maximum variation sampling strategy focusing on people from minority ethnic backgrounds (45 of total sample). Interviews were done remotely and recorded via video or audio. Study participants were invited to tell their story in their own words, alongside semi-structured prompting. After thematic analysis, the research team worked with theatre practitioners from the Performing Medicine company to create scenarios from verbatim interview content. The format allows audience members to watch scenarios and interact directly with actors, giving advice on how to improve the situation. The study was approved by Berkshire Ethics Committee. Informed verbal and written consent were obtained from all participants. FindingsFive themes from analysis explored in the workshop emerged: (1) existing racialised disadvantages that impacted COVID-19 exposure: employment, housing, and caring responsibilities; (2) unequal access to care, welfare, and support; (3) fears about the health-care system regarding quality of care and vaccine safety; (4) perceptions that the media and public health messaging blamed minority ethnic groups for spreading infection; and (5) increases in acts of direct racism. These informed the development of a 45-minute interactive scenario, which will be performed at the 10th UK Public Health Science conference. InterpretationThere is an urgent need to re-evaluate public health messaging and care for people from minority ethnic backgrounds. This theatre workshop will support reflection to refine workshop content for further dissemination. FundingUK Economic and Social Research Council.

Promoting environmental justice in contaminated areas by combining environmental public health and community theatre practices

Communities affected by contaminated sites are often overburdened by environmental and social fragilities living a depression in their potentialities and destabilisation in health and quality of life. The paradigm of Environmental Justice and the framework of community capacity (community capacities) are at stake in promoting environmental public health in communities affected by contaminated sites. Three community changes foreseeing the following objectives appear as priorities: centralisation in decisions regarding the use of their territories; an active (i.e. participated) role in decision-making processes; a view of a possible future without contamination. These transitions require the activation of technical, scientific, and cultural domains. While environmental public health research, especially if implemented through a community participative approach, has a central role in promoting the community capacity of ‘knowledge’, performing arts have great potential for empowering the other capacities. Different collective theatrical approaches are reviewed and analysed in the cultural domain, identifying those of community theatre as the practices with the greatest participative and transformative impact. A community-based approach for promoting environmental justice in contaminated sites requires the development of interventions integrating technical-scientific with cultural domains.

Fringe Shakespeare: Shakespeare as You’ve Never Seen It Before

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has thousands of shows every year and dozens of Shakespeare productions among them. To stand out in the saturated festival market, Shakespeare productions emphasise their popular appeal, rebranding Shakespeare as a simultaneously familiar and, at the same time, new product. The neoliberal market conditions of the festival impose a series of limitations and, consequently, Shakespeare productions need to adjust to time and space restrictions and reduce their casts and sets. Shakespeare productions, therefore, negotiate these constraints in order to attract an audience, a tension that has given rise to specific theatrical approaches to Shakespeare in performance. The main objective of this article is therefore to provide an understanding of Fringe Shakespeare, that is, the theatrical events featuring Shakespeare in performance at the Edinburgh Fringe whose distinctive characteristics are determined by the festival context. To do so, the first part of the article reviews the concept of fringe theatre, examines the tension between innovation and material constraints and explores the reasons why so many companies decide to stage Shakespeare at the Edinburgh Fringe. The second part examines the performing trends in Fringe Shakespeare: appropriations, solo shows, new writing, adaptations into unusual genres and parodies. This will shed light on Fringe Shakespeare and its definition as a theatrical event in the first decades of the twenty-first century.

“A Missile to the Future”: The Theatre Ecologies of Caryl Churchill’s Far Away on Spike Island

Abstract This article considers how processes associated with reviving well-known plays can offer new theatrical approaches to the climate crisis. Such revivals can make visible ecological or environmental features that might have gone unnoticed in the past, but which can inspire agency and instil knowledge in the present. This idea is explored in relation to an Irish production of Caryl Churchill’s Far Away (2000), which was staged on an uninhabited island off the South Coast of Ireland in 2017 by Corcadorca Theatre Company. This production can be seen as offering a practical illustration of many of the theoretical ideas associated with theatre ecologies, especially for how Corcadorca blurred distinctions between audience and performers, indoors and outdoors, performance and spectatorship, past and present, and much more. This production should thus be seen as a case study that is worthy of analysis in its own right but which also allows for the identification of viable practices for the staging of theatrical revivals more generally.