Volume 4

Issue 1

Editorial

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

I am proud to present this new issue of ArtsPraxis, featuring articles in response to the guiding questions and themes established for the NYU Forum on Educational Theatre in April 2016, which included applied theatre, drama in education, and theatre for young audiences. As a number of authors submitted articles under the heading of youth theatre, I curated a stand-alone section for this topic as well as I felt it wise to highlight the breadth of research in this area at this time.

At this time. At other times, such a phrase might not warrant extra attention, but these times are different from what many of us have known before. In light of current leadership in the United States, Brexit in the United Kingdom, the unprecedented election cycle in France, the provocations of President Putin, the atrocities committed by Bashar al-Assad against his own people, Indonesia considering the expansion of sharia law beyond the Aceh Province, following the Turkish referendum under President Erdoğan, the instability of the North Korean regime, the ongoing global refugee crisis, and the devastation of global climate change—it may seem that the world is on fire. And faced with what might be perceived as insurmountable challenges, we theatre artists and educators persist. We create. We inspire. We resist.

A great asset of the 2016 Forum on Educational Theatre was the degree to which the NYU Program in Educational Theatre was able to reconnect with our global community. In large part, this was due to the efforts of Philip Taylor following his experience at the International Drama in Education Research Institute in Singapore in 2015. Under the direction of Prue Wales, it became evident at that event, that even in this time of inescapable electronic connections, there is nothing that can take the place of face-to-face fellowship. Just this week, we are coming off of our latest international conference, the NYU Forum on Ethnodrama, looking at the intersection between theatre art and arts-based research paradigms. After many months of political duress, we communed. We shared art, research, and activism.

In the spirit of maintaining our international dialogue in these troubled times, this issue of ArtsPraxis continues the conversation. Our contributors present scholarship from Africa, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. I hope that you find this work as inspirational as I have and that you consider joining us next spring at the 2018 NYU Forum on Performance as Activism.

IN THIS ISSUE

In the Applied Theatre section, Kay Hepplewhite investigates the applied theatre artist’s praxis, attending closely to their responsivity to participants. John Somers identifies the unique features of community theatre in the UK and the role it plays in fostering community cohesion. Linden Wilkinson documents her experience developing an ethnodrama about efforts to create a memorial for the Australian Aboriginal massacre at Myall Creek focusing on trauma and reconciliation. Finally, Kaitlin O. K. Jaskolski chronicles her experience utilizing applied theatre practices to teach life skills to adolescents and young adults in Lagos, Nigeria.

In the Drama in Education section, Scott Welsh reflects on his experiences teaching monologue workshops and interrogates the relationship between education and theatre.

In the Theatre for Young Audiences section, Jessica M. Kaufman unpacks dramaturgy-as-research, specifically looking at her work in devised theatre for young audiences. Dennis Eluyefa provides a brief overview of children’s theatre in the UK, navigating both the educative and entertainment values of the work.

In the final section on Youth Theatre, Clare Hammoor employs auto-ethnography to investigate what he calls, “the production of meaning and the possibilities of children’s theatre.” Pamela Baer illuminates a myriad of ways in which youth can engage in a participatory aesthetic. And finally, Sean Mays looks at the many challenges of adapting Broadway musicals for young performers.

LOOKING AHEAD

During the next few months, we will invite Joe Salvatore, Chair of the 2017 NYU Forum on Ethnodrama, to serve as guest editor, looking to identify highlights of the diverse offerings at the Forum for inclusion in a special edition of ArtsPraxis (Volume 5 Number 1). Following that issue, we will again engage members of the Educational Theatre field who may or may not have been present at the Forum yet want to contribute to the ongoing dialogue around our three areas of specialization: applied theatre, drama in education, and theatre for young audiences. The call for papers will be released concurrently with the next issue (November 2017) and the submission deadline is February 1, 2018.

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Cover image from NYU’s Program in Educational Theatre Study Abroad in Puerto Rico, 2010 by Dr. Jonathan P. Jones.