The paper provides a review of some of the terminologies and definitions of applied theatre, critiques the ‘transformative principle’ argued for by some applied researchers, and extends this to a discussion on the complex relationship between donor agendas and the politics of intention that contribute to the shaping of applied discourse (Taylor 2003, 1). The paper goes on to propose a theatre of ‘little changes’ which eschews big claims of social efficacy, and suggests the need for a discourse which can better articulate an interdependence between the aesthetic imperatives and the possibilities of social engagement.

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The politics of intention: looking for a theatre of little changes

This article builds on existing definitions and classification systems of research-based theatre to offer a way to define subgenres within the field In order to identify similarities and particularities of theatrical performances based on research, the authors first consider definitions from practitioners working within the academy and those creating theatre for the general public After reviewing these existing traditions and definitions, the authors delineate a spectrum of research-based theatre This spectrum is based on two defining continua: the research continuum, which distinguishes among many types of research used to inform research-based theatre, and the performance continuum, which distinguishes among different kinds of performances, audiences, and purposes of a given research-based theatre piece The spectrum of research-based theatre formed by combining these continua may assist practitioners in determining and honoring the goals and outcomes of their own work, while not making unnecessary c

Delineating a Spectrum of Research-Based Theatre:

This overview article initially focuses on early connections between dramatic art, teaching, learning, and living, followed by a brief account of how Great Britain took on a pioneering role with regard to the establishment of drama as a school subject, method and educational sub-discipline. It then focuses on how drama pedagogy in foreign language teaching and learning has developed as a specific field of research and practice since the 1970s, acknowledging the important contributions to the field made by scholars and practitioners from outside Great Britain. An overview of current practice in the field is given by presenting different (small-scale and large-scale) forms of staging language, literature and culture. The article concludes by proposing a model for a „Performative Fremdsprachendidaktik“ (Performative Foreign Languages Didactics) and by arguing that in the future “performative” be used as an umbrella term to describe forms of foreign language teaching and learning that derive from the performing arts. 1 Early connections between dramatic art and teaching, learning, and living The metaphor of the world as a stage (theatrum mundi), tends to be associated in particular with the Spanish Baroque poet, Calderón de la Barca. In the first part of his famous ‘sacramental play’, El gran teatro del mundo (1636) God, as ‘The Author’, speaks of the world as a wonderful but in the end short-lived theatre, in which the drama of human life is acted out.1 The ‘World’ actually becomes a character in the play ‘The Master’ wishes to see performed – the play of human life. 1 The idea of the world as a stage had already been introduced in Shakespeare’s play As you like it as far back as 1599: “All the world’s a stage/And all the men and women, merely players/They have their exits and their entrances/And one man in his time plays many parts” (Shakespeare, 2007: 227). Copyright © 2013 Scenario · All rights reserved · Alle Rechte vorbehalten Manfred Schewe Taking Stock and Looking Ahead: Drama Pedagogy as a Gateway to a Performative Teaching and Learning Culture Scenario Volume 2013 · Issue 1 The idea of life as a play as well as the idea of understanding life better through play, has existed for quite some time in the history of European culture. Since ancient times, dramatic art has raised fundamental questions about both the limits and the possibilities of human existence. In addition, there are also early indications of the roles dramatic art can play in the field of education, in order to help individuals to come to a better understanding of what life is about and to develop abilities and skills which might be of value in the course of their education and personal development. Philip Coggin (1956) illustrates this in his historical survey which ranges from Ancient Greece to the present day. The use of drama in educating children, for example, goes back to Plato (427-347 BC) who believed that children should learn in a playful way and be allowed to blossom by having as few constraints as possible on them (Coggin 1956:7ff). Coggin also refers to Quintilian (35-97 approx.) who regarded actors as exemplars of the art of delivering speech (ibid: 23f.). In the early Middle Ages, Benedictine monks began to accompany their singing of sacred hymns with gestures and movements, the first steps towards the emergence of liturgical plays. From that time onwards forms of drama-based education became increasingly popular (ibid: 45f.). Coggin emphasises the vital importance of mystery and morality plays in educating people at a time when access to books and learning was reserved for the privileged classes of medieval society (ibid: 52). AccordingtoCoggin the increasinguseofdrama-relatedactivities inEuropean schools towards the second half of the 16th century, can be explained by the influence of humanist ideals of education (ibid: 58). From 1560 onwards, for instance, the performance of a play in Latin and English had become an annual event at the Westminster school; it was felt to provide a good training in appropriate behaviour (“proper action”) and to help to polish the students’ pronunciation skills.2 While he mainly focuses on England, Coggin also occasionally refers to developments outside his home country when, for example, he mentions Goethe’s father and how he overcame his sceptical attitude towards theatre by eventually coming to the conclusion that participation in school plays does, in fact, have a beneficial effect: We know that his father disapproved very strongly of the theatre, until he found that it was teaching young Goethe to speak French faster than any tutor. (Coggin 1956:171) It seems that this attitude was also shared by committed language teachers at English schools from the mid-19th century onwards: As in the Renaissance, the mid-century schoolmasters first adopted drama as an aid to language study. French and German were beginning to enter 2 Participating in the staging of a school play in Latin in order to improve linguistic competence seems to have been a very widespread practice at this time. In 1667, for instance, students of the ‘Klosterschule Einsiedeln’ in Switzerland were performing the play ‘Incendium Londini’. From today’s perspective, this is a very noteworthy example of introducing students to ‘current affairs’, or recent developments in another country (Federer, 2007: 89).

Taking Stock and Looking Ahead: Drama Pedagogy as a Gateway to a Performative Teaching and Learning Culture

There is a need for critically informed studies that include children's perspectives on the role of children in disaster contexts, given the increased incidence of disasters resulting from the global forces of climate change. Three case studies are presented from two different disaster contexts in Australia and New Zealand, where the notion of child empowerment fits within the broader political culture of liberal democracy. Each of these case studies promotes children's right to participate, consistent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). In attempting to provide opportunities for children to articulate their perspective on disaster, this study recognizes the manner in which the increased prevalence and scale of disasters may further complicate and distort possibilities for the actualization of children's participation rights. In doing so the authors recommend a theory-informed approach, including recognizing the complementarity of competing theories of childhood, and advocate for ch...

Research with, by, for and about Children: Lessons from Disaster Contexts

Racial Disadvantage and Ethnic Diversity in Britain

CONTENTS: Acknowledgements Contributors Preface 1. The human context: Who performs research and why? Purposes Respondents and witnesses The points of view and requirements But how much fun is it? 2. Charting the territory: Ethnodrama and its close relations The transience of labels Terms and their implications for practice The family tree 3. Responsibilities: Social responsibility and social action Ethics 4. Ownership and power: Notions of authority, faithfulness and adaptation Lack of participant homogeneity Position and the selection of dialogue Verbatim and characters Beyond verbatim Adaptation theory Performance as reality or fiction The gatekeepers and power Other influences of power Relationships between researcher and participant 5. Aesthetic and other tensions: The elements of aesthetic form: Dialogue and fiction Elements of aesthetic form: Mise-en-scene Fictionalisation and authenticity Other dramatic elements Stylisation Reader's theatre Dramatic structure Characters and acting The commentator or 'researcher' The paradox of ethnodrama Conclusion 6. Alice Hoy is not a building: Women in academia: Introduction Questions and themes The performance text Generating data Deep space Performance-based data analysis Workshop 1: Experimenting with data analysis The performance text Performing the play: Part one As researchers we are also performing Performing the play: Part two Aesthetic decisions Performing the play: Part three Performing the play: Part four Performing the play: Part five Representing the researchers in performance Performing the play: Part six The audience 7. Encounters in child care: Reducing complexity Creation of characters Discussion 8. A Day in December: Introduction The inciting event The research project Prior learning and the lure of the three act structure Remembering Glenbrook: The structure Remembering Glenbrook: The content The Signals: The problematic chapter three Finding a final turning point A confrontation The NIDA Short Course Program The development of a rehearsal draft Remembering A Day in December A discovery Verbatim theatre and the playwright's challenge Conclusion: Learning from experience 9. Scrap Pickers and other local Hong Kong projects: Fast tracking ethnodrama: A two-week assignment in Hong Kong: Introducing the case study Section 1: The projects The context of choice Section 2: The Scrap Pickers project Aims: Personal and social The project plan Pre-performance Participants' critical reflections Kate Will The relationship between education and research The relationship between drama and research The relationship between drama and educational purpose 10. Performing histories: Voices of black rural community: From oral history to ethnodrama: The journey of the spoken word: Introduction Stories and marginalised communities The context of the initial research data and the project leaders Authenticity and risks of reductionism Artistic choices and tensions Script development Stakeholder interests Closing reflections 11. Investigating masculinities in school: It's a play for us: Ethnographic performance as part of an educational ethnography: Back story Setting the scene Dramatis personae The production team: A collaborative approach Ethical considerations Prologue to the drama A script is not the only way to tell a story Limitations to the data Sharing the emerging text: Entering into the dialogic A matter of style and form Negotiating the performance The usefulness of ethnographic performance in a school setting References Index.

Performing Research: Tensions, Triumphs and Trade-Offs of Ethnodrama

This paper considers the new discourse of applied theatre and suggests that ‘applied theatre’ has
moved from being an umbrella term to refer to a range of particular forms of theatre practice
sharing specific common features, to become a term referring to a specific form itself. It suggests
that the discourse now delineates a restricted and exclusive type of radical practice, enshrined in
an evangelical frame. The new discourse acts to exclude a range of other practices that might
once have been deemed appropriately placed under an applied theatre umbrella. Consideration is
given to why the term was introduced, whether it serves a useful function, and to its subsequent
trajectory. Furthermore, the paper suggests that one of the forms that has been pushed out into the
rain is drama in education.

Applied theatre: an exclusionary discourse?

CONTENTS: Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Power and privilege: Re-envisioning the qualitative research lens 2. Re-imagining the reflective practitioner: Towards a philosophy of critical praxis 3. Researching through case study 4. (Post) critical ethnography in drama research 5. Feminist methodology: Researching as if gender and social power really mattered 6. Narrative inquiry: Postcards from Northampton 7. The feeling of the experience: A methodology for performance ethnography 8. Poststructuralist 'methodology' Index.

Research methodologies for drama education

This paper seeks to explore three issues that have struck us when using drama to explore equality and diversity. The first is the stronghold of notions of ‘political correctness’ and, arguably, the hegemonic position of an anti-PC discourse. The second is the lurking residue of ‘colonial’ attitudes that seep even into attempts to construct antiracist practices. The third is the pedagogic tension between intended learning outcomes which entail getting a particular message across and the desire to give free rein to different voices.We wish to share our discoveries, thoughts and dilemmas regarding these three issues while giving you a taste of a project that we have been recently developing: Minefields.

KEYNOTE: "You're not allowed to say that" Minefields and political correctness

This paper considers what might be considered to be the fundamentals of Drama in Education practices and explores how they are used in a range of different contexts, beyond the classroom. Role play...

Judith Ackroyd

Papers

Performing Research: Tensions, Triumphs and Trade-Offs of Ethnodrama

Applied theatre: an exclusionary discourse?

Research methodologies for drama education

KEYNOTE: "You're not allowed to say that" Minefields and political correctness

Real Play, Real Feelings and Issues of Protection: Drama in Education Beyond the Classroom