Applied Theatre: Ethics

Description

Applied Theatre: Ethics explores what it means for applied theatre practice to be conducted in an ethical way and examines how this affects the work done with communities and participants. It considers how practitioners can balance aesthetics and ethics when creating performance, particularly with relatively inexperienced and often vulnerable groups of people who are being asked to both tell and stage their stories. The two sections bring together theoretical and practical ways for theatre-makers to examine the ethics of their applied theatre projects. Part One offers an overview of critical debates and the editors’ reflections on their own practice. It introduces readers to ethics in applied theatre, informed by the thinking of philosophers, scholarly literature and the editors’ own experience, including Indigenous perspectives on ethics and theatre. For applied theatre practitioners, it provides recommendations for community-based ethical approaches working with principles of voice, agency, care, service, collaboration, presence, relationality and reciprocity. Part Two presents a range of international case studies that explore how the theories and issues are worked out in a variety of diverse practices. It considers ethics from varying critical perspectives and contexts, including projects in Greece, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Canada. Covering work with participants of many ages, the case studies include the work of a professional dance theatre company working with people in substance abuse recovery in the UK, interactive drama used in an educational context in Nigeria, and the complexities around an applied theatre project on race in the US. Cover Contents List of Figures Notes on Contributors Part 1 How We Can Be Together 1 Introduction: Being Together Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta and Monica Prendergast 2 Indigenous Perspectives on Ethics and Theatre Ruby Peter, Kim Senklip Harvey, Deneh’Cho Thompson, Thomas Jones, and Jill Carter with Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta 3 Ethical Discourse in Applied Theatre: A Historiographic and Curricular Literature Review Monica Prendergast 4 A Dialogue with James Thompson: Paper Airplanes, Good Care, and Working Alongside Each Other Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta Part 2 Examples of Togetherness 5 Towards a “First Philosophy” of Applied Theatre: Practice of Freedom Embedded in Responsibility for the Other Syed Jamil Ahmed 6 For an Ethic of Critical Generosity: Facilitating Productive Discomfort in Applied Theatre Praxis Dani Snyder-Young 7 Off the Record: Can We Just Have a Conversation? An Ethics of Acceptance Approach for Applied Theatre Practice and Research Trudy Pauluth-Penner 8 “Dark Night Ends”: The Ethics of Vulnerability in Applied Theatre Zoe Zontou 9 Responsibility for the Other: An Ethic of Care in Applied Theatre Practice in Greek Refugee Camps Anita Hallewas 10 “Standing in the Trouble”: Tensions and Ethics of Engagement in Utilizing Applied Theatre in the Context of Police Training Yasmine Kandil 11 Ethics of Precarity in Applied Theatre: A Case Study from Nigeria Taiwo Afolabi 12 Research Ethics as Censorship in Applied Theatre Sheila Christie 13 Colonial Adventurism in Applied Theatre: An Ethical Self-Critique Dennis D. Gupa 14 Locked down with Ikigai: Initial Thoughts on the Essential Void Ruwanthie de Chickera Index