This companion interrogates the relationship between theatre and youth from a global perspective, taking in performances and theatre made by, for, and about young people.
These different but interrelated forms of theatre are addressed through four critical themes that underpin the ways in which analysis of contemporary theatre in relation to young people can be framed: political utterances – exploring the varied ways theatre becomes a platform for political utterance as a process of dialogic thinking and critical imagining; critical positioning – examining youth theatre work that navigates the sensitive, dynamic, and complex terrains in which young people live and perform; pedagogic frames – outlining a range of contexts and programmes in which young people learn to make and understand theatre that reflects their artistic capacities and aesthetic strategies; applying performance – discussing a range of projects and companies whose work has been influential in the development of youth theatre within specific contexts.
Providing critical, research-informed, and research-based discussions on the intersection between young people, their representation, and their participation in theatre, this is a landmark text for students, scholars, and practitioners whose work and thinking involves theatre and young people.
Author(s): Selina Busby, Kelly Freebody, Charlene Rajendran
Series: Routledge Theatre and Performance Companions
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 594
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Table of Contents
List of Figures
List of Contributors
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
PART 1 Political Utterances
2 Bodyliness in European Applied Theatre Projects: Reflecting on the Importance of Inviting the Body to the Workshop’s Room
Reflection 1 On the Importance of Big Umbrellas: Applied Theatre as a Hopeful Practice in Precarious Times
3 Becoming Giants: Towards Oceania through Mastery of Bodily Skills and Techniques
4 Navigating Adultism in Critical Youth Theatre Practice
Reflection 2 We Are Still Here and Why We Do Theatre
5 The Manipulation of Mowgli: Performing Youth, Deconstructing Racialization, and Tracing Imperialism in The Jungle Book
6 Shakespeare Youth Performance Festivals as Spaces for Postcolonial Restorying
Reflection 3 What Defines the Dramaturgy of Young Peoples Theatre (YPT) and Who Defines It?
7 Performing Violence, Devising Futures? Performance with and by Young People in Rwanda and Uganda
Reflection 4 Theatre to Raise a Village
8 Scotland’s Youth Theatre and Drama Sector
PART 2 Critical Positioning
9 Arena Theatre Company: Making Theatre with Young People as a
Methodology for Making Theatre for Young People
Reflection 5 Theatre Makes Me Think Again
10 ‘Home Grown’ Productions for Their Own Young People: Researching Community Theatre Groups in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
11 Re-Thinking “Theatre” during Social Distancing: How Cosmic Kids Yoga Got Us Through a Pandemic
12 Theatre of Hope: PaGaSa in the Praxis of Youth Advocates through Theater Arts (YATTA)
13 Trials and Tribulations: Creating Theatre for Young Audiences with or without Youth
Reflection 6 At the Water’s Edge: Theatre as a Space for Reflection
14 Between Past and Future: Edward Bond and the Representation of Adolescent ‘Crisis'
15 The Imagined Child Onstage: Theatrical Depictions of Parental Grief during Transition for Youth on the Autism Spectrum
Reflection 7 Theatre: The Humanizing Social Metaphor
16 Access to Theatre for Young People in India: Thespo’s Journey through Change and Challenge from 1999 to 2021
17 Verbatim Formula: Affect, Agency, and Participatory Performance with Care-Experienced Young People
PART 3 Pedagogic Frames
18 “Writing What Matters to Me”: Voicing Latinx Youth Concerns through Theatre Scriptwriting
19 Let Them Speak: Devised Theatre as a Culturally Responsive Methodology for Secondary Students
Reflection 8 A Chain of Creative Bombs
20 The Artistic and Pedagogical Experience at the Casa do Teatro, Brazil
21 Botanical Drama - Theatre for Young People
Reflection 9 “But Damn It, without the Illusion, What Would Man Have Been Then?"
22 To the Syllabus and Beyond: Young People Learning through Theatre-Making in Australian Schools
23 A Dialogue across the Circle: Creating ‘Authentic’ Theatre for Achievement Standards in New Zealand Secondary Schools
Reflection 10 Talking about Being in Youth Theatre
24 Artist- and Teacher-Supported Extra-Curricular Theatre in Secondary Schools: Exploring the Benefits of a ‘Betwixt and Between’ Youth Theatre Form
25 Making Space: A Community-Engaged Youth Theatre Practice Grounded in Care
PART 4 Applying Performance
Reflection 11 Dancing towards Dreams
26 ‘What Does Transformative Justice Look Like?’: Clean Break Theatre Company and the Young Artists Development Programme
27 SExT: Sex Education by Theatre – Empowering Youth from a Community Where Sex Is Culturally Taboo to Take Centre Stage
Reflection 12 Theatre for Learning Expression and Empathy from the Margins
28 ‘I Do the Story I Tell’ – Theatre-Making for Children Living on the
Margins in Singapore
29 United We Stand? Devised Theatre for Social Change with Youth in a Tumultuous America
30 All the Stage Is a World: Prospects for Virtual Reality Theatre with Young People
Reflection 13 A Life-Changing Journey in the Karoo, South Africa
31 Young People’s Theatre in Thailand: A Performance Ecology Approach
32 Imagining Alternative Futures for Marginalised Communities in Taiwan through Devised Theatre with University Students in Educational and Community Settings
Reflection 14 Moments of Truth
Conclusion: An Open Letter to the Young Theatre Practitioners
Index
