This article focuses on how ableist discourses and practices seek to "normalize" the disabled body which is deemed to be "deviant". This leads to acts of normalization that expose disabled bodies to precarity, conceived here as the lived experience of marginalization, ostracism and vulnerability. Using the case study of a…

Caste, and awareness of it, have been a persistent, though changing, feature of South Asian communities' experience in the UK. In twenty-first century Britain the issue of caste has come to the fore and has been hotly contested, in relation to equality legislation. In this wider context, the present article maps some of caste's historical…

This paper is a study of a Malayalam documentary play "Not Just the Victims" staged by Abhinaya Theatre Research Centre Trivandrum. Along with analyzing the documentary method of the play this study looks at how the theatre group employed the play for "re-educating" the people regarding certain existing norms. The play…

This paper offers a critical analysis of the imposition of Fundamental British Values (FBVs) in schools and nurseries as part of Prevent, the UK's counter-terrorism strategy, and compares the rationale of this policy with the motivation for Theatre in Education (TIE). This paper argues that the 'values' promoted through education under Prevent…

In this essay, I explore the Youth Theatre for Peace (YTP) project in relation to environmental aesthetics and engaged participatory practices towards tolerance building in Central Asia. My main argument is that cultural histories of storytelling, "manas" (an oral and now literary Kyrgyz epic) and trickster tales incorporate ideas and…

This article examines a programme of work produced by community-based theatre company, Manaton and East Dartmoor (MED) Theatre, addressing issues of climate change as they impact on life in rural Devon, UK. After some discussion of MED Theatre's constitution as a community-based company and the group's long-term engagement with the place, history,…

Forum Theatre (FT), a participatory improvised theatre form, raises consciousness, enables debate and critical reflection, and encourages a democratic form of knowledge production that engages the audience in their own learning and unlearning. I used FT as a platform to understand how 15- to 18-year-old learners, in a co-educational school in the…

Workman Arts, a Toronto-based theatre and visual arts company with a 20-year history, provides a rich site for re-imagining stigmatised representations of mental illness. Writing and performing against a long tradition of representing people with mental illnesses as incoherent speakers and visually different, company members seek to re-imagine…

This article considers the implications of a disability arts, culture and scholarship series "The Unruly Salon", undertaken at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver in Canada, which ran from January to March 2008. It asks how and whether the encounter of this Series with its diverse audiences makes a lasting contribution to the…

Describes three innovative courses, focused on Mexican cultural performances, developed to help raise college students' knowledge and understanding of other cultures and help students gain critical insights into their own cultures and themselves through comparative reflection. Student assessments suggested that students had positive reactions to…

This article details how a unique educational project conducted through Tel Aviv University's Community Theatre program tackled the complex dynamics of the prison-political system over nine months in 2005-2006. The program focused on theatrical facilitations between mainly female students and male prisoners - two more or less homogeneous groups…

Educational drama has been embraced as a promising way to address sensitive and highly-charged issues among youth. An Israeli drama, "Backyard Games", about gang rape, based on an actual case in a kibbutz [a communal settlement] called Shomrat, is considered the definitive work on the subject in Israeli theatre. Written by Edna Mazya and…

Critiques an article that examined the teaching of anthropology through intercultural performance in college classrooms, noting the benefits of this creative alternative approach to teaching and reflection and highlighting potential dangers in intercultural performance (e.g., promoting cultural stereotypes). (SM)

This article discusses the impact of critical work education and social exclusion in aiding and assisting school-aged children and young adults through projects that help reshape their connections to self and society. The visual and performing arts gave at-risk young people opportunities to explore their biographical histories and personal…