The purpose of this phenomenological, qualitative, temporal study was to examine the effects of a semester-long physical theater class on body schema (body posture, awareness, confidence, expression) among eight college students. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted twice to qualitatively collect the study's data. Two themes…

Can traditional live theatre affect the identity formation of teenagers? Drawing upon a six-year, qualitative study of Canadian, independent school live theatre audiences and a review of identity formation and audience studies, this paper offers three findings of interest to high school English teachers. These speak to the need for English…

"Dawn" is an autobiographical university theatre production based on the narrative of Samanyanga, a University of Zimbabwe undergraduate. The article draws from interview materials, personal communication and observations to theorise the experience of participating in the project. The concepts of "Aesthetics of Existence" and…

Z402 Youth Theatre Tour was designed from a critical performative pedagogical positioning (Weltsek, 2019). Here learning emerges from how individuals and communities perform their emergent identities as they cross literal and metaphorical socio-cultural borders. Z402 resulted in a 100% student created new play, parallel workshop, and study guide.…

Creation of a classroom environment safe enough for students to expess their perspectives, hear classmates views and engage in classroom dialogue remains a major challenge in social work teaching. Intergroup dialogue and Theatre of the Oppressed are two approaches that effectively meet these challenges. Intergroup dialogue offers a systematic…

In this article, we reflect on the way our verbatim theatre script Out at School was paired with Theatre of the Oppressed work in an undergraduate applied theatre class. Through an engagement with the complex lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) families at school, students moved from a response of what Jenny Salisbury calls…

This dissertation discusses how engaging in arts-based identity exploration activities can help traditional-age undergraduates (ages 18-24) develop increased self-awareness and cultural sensitivity. The dissertation first explores the participatory inquiry paradigm and the roles of artistic/creative expression in holistic knowledge creation and…

As a lifelong theater artist and educator, as well as practitioner of a variety of meditative techniques, this author has been keenly interested in the potential impact of sitting meditation and other contemplative practices on acting, vocal, and movement training in college and university performing arts departments. For many years, she wondered…

This exploratory study examined student responses to an interactive theater performance about the experiences of deaf students in the hearing culture of higher education. The theoretical framework for the study synthesized sociological work by Zerubavel, Foucault, and Bourdieu on construction and maintenance of institutional boundaries separating…

Makes sense of the performance of Steve Taylor's play, "Ties That Bind," from the perspective of the actors, 14 faculty members, and doctoral students from various universities in the United States by using the interpretive lens of Erving Goffman's Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. (SG)

Argues that arts education makes it possible for students to imagine themselves out of their current identities, describing how a middle school theater arts program supported female students' positive identities. Observation and interview data indicated that tools gained in the program transformed girls' attitudes toward education and other…

This document presents the proceedings of the 17th Annual Research Forum held June 29, 2012, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included herein are the following 25 action research papers: (1) "Reading and Writing": A Study Comparing the Strengths of Peer Review and Visible Author Writing Strategies (Elizabeth Behar); (2)…