PROTAGONISMO Y ESTÉTICA DEL VÍNCULO EN APPLIED THEATRE WITH YOUNG PEOPLE / PROTAGONISM AND RELATIONSHIP AESTHETICS IN APPLIED THEATRE WITH YOUNG PEOPLE

CIVIL SOCIETY, RELIGION AND APPLIED THEATRE IN A KAIROTIC MOMENT - PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS ON A PROJECT ON POLITICAL VIOLENCE & TORTURE IN ZIMBABWE: 2001 – 2002

Commonwealth Youth and Development ◽

10.25159/1727-7140/1806 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 81-91

Author(s):

Owen Seda ◽

Nehemiah Chivandikwa

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Rural Communities ◽

Young People ◽

Political Violence ◽

Social Transformation ◽

Social Construct ◽

Theatre Arts ◽

Applied Theatre ◽

Perpetrators And Victims ◽

The Moment

This article is a critical reflection on possibilities for social transformation and democratisation that can be possibly realised through collaborations between young people in civil society, African traditional religion and the Christian movement in contemporary contexts. In this context the focus on young people as key agents of change is informed by the frequent observation that young people are often the major perpetrators (and victims) of political violence and yet the least beneficiaries from the political spoils. The article analyses a project in the use of applied theatre to address political violence and torture that was conducted by the University of Zimbabwe's Department of Theatre Arts and Amani Trust some time between October 2001 and March 2002. The article uses that project to investigate and to illustrate some of the opportunities that can be harnessed by religious arms of civil society to strengthen peace in disadvantaged rural communities, such as we find in contemporary Zimbabwe, and which often bear the brunt of social unrest in times of political uncertainty. The study approaches time as a social construct that determines human agency and decision-making in order to adopt the biblical concept of ‘kairos’ or the ‘kairotic’ moment. The ‘kairotic’ moment referred to in this paper is the period between 1999 and 2008 when the Zimbabwean polity faced one of its severest national crises following protracted political contestation. This resulted in unprecedented levels of political intolerance, and state-sanctioned violence and torture in the country’s post-independence history. This level of political violence was perhaps second only to the infamous Gukurahundi massacres, which took place in the Midlands and Matebeleland provinces during the mid-1980s. We also view the kairotic moment as a critical moment for making a fundamental decision. It is full of both promise and danger, so much so that whether the moment ‘reaps’ hope or danger depends on how the moment is seized. We ask: Did civil society seize the moment to reap hope? In other words, we analyse whether various arms of Zimbabwean civil society took advantage of the ‘pregnant’ or kairotic moment to liberate itself. The authors adopt existing discourses on civil society and liberation theology to argue that whenever the time is ripe for meaningful intervention, there in fact exist immense opportunities for different branches of civil society domiciled in both traditional African and modern Christian religions to harness applied theatre in the service of peace and democratisation in the face of political adversity and uncertainty.

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The intuit: An investigation into the definitions, applications and possibilities offered by intuitive applied theatre practice with vulnerable youth

Applied Theatre Research ◽

10.1386/atr_00018_1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 233-249

Author(s):

Nicola Abraham

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

The Other ◽

Vulnerable Youth ◽

Theatre Companies ◽

Applied Theatre

Abstract This article offers insights into what might constitute intuition in applied theatre practices with vulnerable youth in London. The study will explore the approaches of five theatre companies working with children and vulnerable youth. A lead practitioner from each company has been interviewed, and the interpretation of the data they have provided has offered new insights into the role of intuition as an approach to ensuring that applied theatre is responsive to young people living precarious lives. The research identifies two aspects of intuitive practice: one that resides with the actions and thoughts of the practitioner, and the other that involves the acceptance of intuitive creative offerings by participants. The study has also revealed the potential heightening of intuitive responses for practitioners who share history, culture, location or identities with their participants. As a whole, the findings offer useful potential considerations of key qualities for an intuitive practitioner, or the intuit, working specifically with young people in contexts of uncertainty.

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Joëlle Aden (2010), An intercultural meeting through Applied Theatre; Theaterspielen als Chance in der interkulturellen Begegnung; Rencontre interculturelle autour de pratiques théâtrales.

Scenario: A Journal for Performative Teaching, Learning, Research ◽

10.33178/scenario.5.1.11 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol V (1) ◽

pp. 104-106

Author(s):

Mary Noonan

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Young People ◽

Education System ◽

Research Methodology ◽

Theoretical Framework ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Applied Theatre ◽

Initial Idea ◽

European Education ◽

Opening Section

This book contains a condensed account, in three languages (French, German, English) of a theatre project for adolescents that was in preparation over a two-year period, and that resulted in a week-long residential workshop for sixty young people from six partner countries at a theatre in Forbach, on the Franco-German border in April 2009. The initial idea for a European intercultural theatre project emerged from ANRAT, the French national association for theatre action and research, who decided to focus their efforts on young migrants in the European education system. What evolved was a project in which approximately 60 adolescents speaking 24 languages between them came together with 9 theatre practitioners from the 6 countries represented (France, Spain, Greece, Holland, Germany, the United Kingdom). The work of the group was in turn followed and observed by 5 researchers drawn from the partner countries. The project, developed for use with young people who had recently emigrated to Europe, aimed to answer two questions: The book aims to show how these questions were answered in the course of the ‘intercultural meetings’ it describes. In the opening section, the author sets out the theoretical framework and the research methodology. This section is sketchy and ...

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The Applied Theatre Practitioner as Responsive Performer: Defining the Role in Work with Young People

The Applied Theatre Artist ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-47268-9_6 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 157-192

Author(s):

Kay Hepplewhite

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Applied Theatre

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A World Elsewhere

Critical Survey ◽

10.3167/cs.2019.310408 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 31 (4) ◽

pp. 77-87

Author(s):

Susanne Greenhalgh

Keyword(s):

Learning Disabilities ◽

Social Work ◽

Young People ◽

General Public ◽

Combat Veterans ◽

Social Differences ◽

Academic Interest ◽

Transformative Power ◽

Applied Theatre ◽

The Individual

Documentaries about the use of Shakespeare in applied theatre publicise and endorse the work of practitioners to scholars as well as the general public, and have influenced the growth of academic interest in what this article terms Social Shakespeare: practices in which Shakespeare and social work interact with each other to bring about change. However, in the quest for touching and uplifting individual stories, such media treatments risk ignoring the actual values and strategies governing the work in favour of narratives that normalise social differences through emphasis on the transformative power of Shakespearean theatre, viewed as a sanctified space. Documentaries about three different constituencies – prisoners, young people with learning disabilities, and combat veterans – are examined to determine how far they locate the need for change in society rather than in the individual.

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