This article considers two examples of life story performance: the first autobiographical work about the author's recovery from stroke, and the second the life-story production Re-Live Theatre's "Memoria" about dementia. It explores how performing life stories facilitates connection between performers with transformed cognitive…

This research examined in-depth the employment experiences of autistic performing arts professionals and the attitudes and adjustments of performing arts employers. We interviewed 18 autistic performing arts professionals and 19 performing arts employers. Autistic performing arts professionals described facing challenges in the workplace. Some…

The experience of visiting a zoo as a child can be remembered decades later and potentially influences future environmental attitudes. In light of steadily growing criticism of the ethics and value of live animal shows, some zoos are seeking alternative means of delivering 'edutainment' to a broad audience. One such alternative is through theatre.…

Historical pageants were important sites of popular engagement with the past in twentieth-century Britain. They took place in many places and sometimes on a large scale, in settings ranging from small villages to industrial cities. They were staged by schools, churches, professional organisations, women's groups and political parties, among…

In this article the authors reflect on their work together on 'Sharing Stories', a project involving British and Ugandan partners using theatre to explore issues around mental ill health. They argue that while working through theatre in this intercultural project created spaces of equality, wider factors limited the extent to which an equal…

This article focuses specifically on drama and theatre higher education (HE) programmes and preparation for potential graduate work. The article investigates working in the creative industries and in the performing arts (particularly within acting) and how HE students in the United Kingdom prepare for this life. The growth of the creative…

Dr. Katrina Carter shares some of the challenges and successes she encountered when incorporating Audio Description (AD) into an undergraduate circus module in the UK, for the first time. She demonstrates how, by considering diverse audiences, access tools can enhance the creative process for the artists themselves. Forcing them to question what,…

The need for dialogue between diverse groups within society is pressing, but the shrinking of shared public space makes it difficult for storytelling to cross social divides. Through an evolving practice of multi-artform "storyhacking," I and various collaborators have attempted to facilitate creative intercommunity dialogue by indirect…

This article addresses the performance of labour in participatory arts projects and considers the implications of such activity on perceptions of the unemployed in the UK. Utilising a combination of biopolitical and necropolitical understandings of governance and drawing on two examples of theatre practice, Tangled Feet's "One Million"…

This article is an autoethnographic account of my journey from theatre stage manager to academic stage manager. Performing arts education and training in Higher Education is a diverse field, ranging from small private institutions to large research lead universities. Professional practitioners (performers, stage managers, technicians, designers,…

As children with autism spectrum disorder become adults, social participation continues to be an area of need. Within creative arts, there is a growing body of literature about the use of theatre arts, improvisational theatre, and improvisational techniques as a way to address social participation for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The…

All disciplines have particular ways of knowing, common practices, and means of using language that mediate and potentially support engagement with the discipline. For multilingual learners, language demands of a discipline can be a closed door or a facilitated entryway. Drama and theater arts, the focus of our article, are often marginalized in…

This paper documents the drawings, installations, video works, and performances that were produced as part of Bryan McCormack's "Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow" ("Traceability is Credibility") conceptual work at the 2017 Venice Biennale in collaboration with Henry Bell and undergraduate students at Sheffield Hallam University. It…

In view of the recent Arts Council 'Creative Case for Diversity', and considering the challenging socio-political climate of contemporary Britain, this article explores Muslim cultural participation, and the obstacles towards its visibility. The role of the British Muslim artist is crucial in addressing current radicalising and Islamophobic…

In 2011, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) began a series of collaborations with established amateur theatre groups from across the UK. The initiative now known as Open Stages became one of the most ambitious educational outreach programmes ever run by the RSC, engaging hundreds of amateur theatre practitioners in a process of skills sharing and…