Overview
This book explores the practice of theatre in communities, social institutions and with marginalised groups. It shifts between context and country to examine different ways that theatre has been applied to a wide range of social issues. Theatre projects in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Sri Lanka and the UK are analysed to argue for a complex and questioning view of the practice. Initiatives in prisons, development contexts, war situations and participatory research projects become the sites to interrogate the claims that applied theatre can be a theatre for social change. Many practitioners and researchers, who have witnessed powerful applied theatre projects, nonetheless struggle to articulate the reasons why the projects were successful. This book uses the questions inspired by that perplexity to create a case for applied theatre as a major area of contemporary theatre practice.
Reviews
This is an intensely honest and vulnerable book. Thompson takes us with him into prisons and theatres of war, without needing to valorise his role as emancipator or hero in these contexts. Instead he carefully reveals and analyses how these encounters have shaped a faltering and always incomplete praxis based in 'bewilderment' rather than easy certainties. This is a practical account with a solid backgrounding in theory. [...] This has been a provocative and fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone who has Thompson's courage and commitment to doubt the world and their place in it as artist, writer, activist or teacher. Thompson is a skilled practitioner and also, in this account, his own critical friend; this is a powerful combination. -- Jonothan Neelands
This is an intensely honest and vulnerable book. Thompson takes us with him into prisons and theatres of war, without needing to valorise his role as emancipator or hero in these contexts. Instead he carefully reveals and analyses how these encounters have shaped a faltering and always incomplete praxis based in 'bewilderment' rather than easy certainties. This is a practical account with a solid backgrounding in theory. [...] This has been a provocative and fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone who has Thompson's courage and commitment to doubt the world and their place in it as artist, writer, activist or teacher. Thompson is a skilled practitioner and also, in this account, his own critical friend; this is a powerful combination. (Jonothan Neelands, Research in Drama Education)
This is an intensely honest and vulnerable book. Thompson takes us with him into prisons and theatres of war, without needing to valorise his role as emancipator or hero in these contexts. Instead he carefully reveals and analyses how these encounters have shaped a faltering and always incomplete praxis based in 'bewilderment' rather than easy certainties. This is a practical account with a solid backgrounding in theory. [...] This has been a provocative and fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone who has Thompson's courage and commitment to doubt the world and their place in it as artist, writer, activist or teacher. Thompson is a skilled practitioner and also, in this account, his own critical friend; this is a powerful combination. (Jonothan Neelands, Research in Drama Education)
Author Information
The Author: James Thompson is Professor of Applied and Social Theatre at the University of Manchester and a Director of the Centre for Applied Theatre Research. He has run applied theatre projects in Brazil, Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, the UK and the US. He is editor of Prison Theatre: Perspectives and Practices (1998) and author of Drama Workshops for Anger Management and Offending Behaviour (1999) and Digging Up Stories: Applied Theatre, Performance and War (2005).
