Notable theorists have argued that theatre and drama play positive roles in the moral education of children and adults, including cultivating their capacity for empathy. Yet other theorists have expressed concerns that plays and educational practices involving improvisation might not lead to positive changes in real life, and might even have…

The word "performance" is the basis for our medium. It's what we work toward, look forward to, and talk about with endless fervor. But does this word, this concept, this idea, actually stifle learning, artistic expression, and growth? As a director and professor of theatre for the past 13 years, I have watched this word become the knave…

International development partnerships are characterised by inherent power relations with community partners often seen as needing assistance in fixing their problems. In this paper, we discuss the limitations of this perspective on the example of gender equality in the Pacific. We explore applied theatre tools to work with a variety of…

Most students meet Shakespeare in middle or high school, on a page in a book in an English classroom. This first encounter is a disservice to the students themselves and to Shakespeare: Shakespeare's plays are works of both literature and theatre, and should be taught as such. A performance-based teaching approach not only provides high school…

An interview with Shawn Kinley, teacher and performer of improvisational theatre, whose work has taken him to 52 countries across five continents over a 30-year career. His diverse teaching experience includes working with scientists, opera companies, the military, family therapists, and more. Shawn shares his thoughts about the need for the…

In this "Promising Practice" article, we describe rationales and processes of using a tableau theater model for student engagement in a developmental education literacy course. Tableau theater is an instructional technique in which students physically reenact moments in texts they read. Asher's (1969) total physical response (TPR), and…

Before COVID, the author had led in-person readers theatre residencies with the same four fourth-grade teachers and their large public-school classes for over a decade. During COVID, the teachers wanted to do an online residency. The challenge: how to create theatre with young learners in isolated rooms, sitting alone, and seeing others only on a…

This article examines how whiteness operates within research projects -- specifically projects where white researchers undertake studies on race -- and offers possibilities for activating an 'ethic of solidarity' within and through skewed power dynamics. An 'ethic of solidarity' offers five areas for white researchers to reflect and act on:…

This article presents a new approach to psychological practice that dwells within the somatic, expressive, imaginal, poetic, narrative, and performative. Embodied Theater Ecology (ETE) as a form of Performative Inquiry is introduced and presented. This approach involves the performative unfolding of unlanguaged stories that lie at the heart of our…

This is the second in a series of success stories about how arts organizations, states, schools and other entities are using funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) to support arts education. Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS) is one of the nation's 20th largest…

As information literacy and data-driven program evaluations have become growing obsessions within academic institutions, how might liberal arts and humanities programmes engage students in both critical and creative explorations of contemporary human-data relations? Inspired by the variety of metaphors that currently shape human-data relations and…

This conversation traces the creation of Todos Festival, one of the most important international socially engaged multi-arts festivals in Southern Europe. In dialogue with artistic director, Madalena Victorino, the festival will be portrayed as a space for encounter and performative exploration of difference, linking marginalised migrant and…

The Creative Learning Initiative (CLI) is a city-wide collaboration between MINDPOP, the City of Austin, Austin Independent School District (AISD), and more than 100 art and cultural organizations dedicated to equitable access to creative learning and the arts for every student in Austin. The CLI model is grounded in research showing that arts…

In advance of the practicum and internship experiences, counselor educators are challenged to provide realistic simulations of the counseling relationship for students. We describe a pilot collaboration between an introductory counseling and an applied theatre course to elucidate the mutual benefits of incorporating theatrical improvisation into…

Many youth struggle to determine their role and cope with overwhelming emotions and imaginative dystopias around combatting climate catastrophe and capitalist greed. In this time when many marginalised youth feel assured of immediate and distant threat, it is vital for applied theatre practitioners and educators to nurture critical hope as a means…