This essay seeks to unpack some of the issues concerning representation when performing refugee stories using playback theatre. It questions the reductive influence of narrative structure and, using the framework of "artist as ethnographer," it argues that strong aesthetic production is required to overcome the dampening effect of empathy when…

This article examines the nature of relationships between funders and applied theatre companies. Recognising that this is a murky terrain where competing agendas and goals can jeopardise the effectiveness of applied theatre programmes, the article traces the history of the funding relationship between Applied Theatre Consultants Ltd and Child,…

This essay examines Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film "In This World," which follows the journey of two Afghan migrants from Peshawar to London. Winterbottom's preparation involved travelling from London to Peshawar and then in reverse overland as far as Istanbul; he then returned to Peshawar and filmed the same journey using two…

Focusing on "The Sheep and the Whale" ("Le mouton et la baleine," 2001) by Moroccan-Canadian playwright Ahmed Ghazali, this essay examines political and ethical issues concerning human migration from Africa to Europe. The play's representation of human rights abuses in the Strait of Gibraltar and the dilemmas facing illegal…

This essay investigates performance events that feature actual refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants, but in instances where presence and embodiment are mediated and made ambiguous. My focus is a fashion show by Catalan designer Antonio Miro, who uses refugees from Senegal as models, and Christoph Schlingensief's public art project…

This essay provides a brief account of selected performances of Australian refugee policy in the domains of politics and theatre. In the domain of politics, it considers rhetorical performances by government ministers and military personnel in relation to the so-called "children overboard" scandal of 2001, and the scandal's parliamentary…

This essay begins by outlining Emmanuel Levinas's radical conception of ethics. Levinas invokes/declares an absolute and primary obligation of responsibility to the human Other, whom he figures hyperbolically as invoked by the epiphany of the encounter with "the face of the Other." This encounter with alterity founds not only ethics, but…

Ten years ago, the ArtsLiteracy Project in the Education Department at Brown University was started with the goal of developing literacy through the performing arts, with the idea of bringing together people from different countries. This article describes an innovative cross-cultural arts integrated language program in Brazil, created by the…

The twelve essays (each by a different author) in this volume cover drama in a liberal education, comment on the tragic hero, remarks on "Hamlet" and "Hedda Gabler," notes on music and drama, comment on didactic drama, an examination of "Andre," studies of the Haymarket Theatre, London productions of American plays,…

Examines, through interviews with two prominent Israeli theatre teachers, the status of children's theatre in Israel at the present, and notes the problems with the types of children's theatre being produced, including the fact that children's plays are too didactic, and that there is little funding to produce them. (JC)

Presents a rationale for viewing theatre as a form of education, and looks at several different ideas for why and how drama should be taught; considers what types of skills children should acquire from a theatre class, and whether drama should focus on the internal, subjective experience of theatre, or the external mechanics of it. (JC)