A reflection on the process that led to the development of dementia friendly theatre performances at Leeds Playhouse (formerly West Yorkshire Playhouse) including the vital involvement of people living with dementia as creative consultants. This article outlines the inspiration behind such performances, the steps required to make the necessary…

Actors create theatre with and for with children in diverse theatrical, educational and therapeutic contexts but little is known about the 'artistry' of their practice. This paper analyses a theatrical encounter between a child and an actor and identifies four key qualities of 'pedagogically tactful' (van Manen 2016) actor practice: listening,…

This essay considers what viewing performance as an affective encounter--an embodied experience of sensations and intensities--might mean for applied theatre. Using auto-theory, which joins personal narrative with theories of affect, new materialism and post-humanism, we write an affective encounter that catches up people and objects in relations…

This article explores the application of theatre and performance pedagogies to broader contexts of interdisciplinary teaching and the increasingly diversified student body. It further attends to the affective dimensions of the twenty-first century digital classroom. In doing so, it proposes that a pedagogy of 'meta-affect' opens out the capacity…

Rehearsals and other approximations of practice are often touted as effective pedagogies for preparing teachers to reproduce/replicate practices deemed universally beneficial. However, scholars have noted that reproducing practices across contexts risks undermining equity and justice. This article reports on a three-year project that examined the…

Indigenous youth are disproportionately impacted by homelessness in Canada. Little is known about Indigenous youths' lived experiences of homelessness and the dominant methodological orientation in related research uses quantitative research methods. There have been calls for increased engagement in qualitative and arts-based research methods. In…

"Acting Alone": a solo performance that explored how social and political engagement in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict might be created through the performer/audience relationship. Drawing on practice as research and data gathered from an extensive tour, this article examines the complexities of creating human rights theatre for a…

Children are often denied science education that engages their emotions and multiple identities. This study focused on ways in which embodied arts-based experiences offer opportunities for such engagement in pedagogical efforts associated with justice-centered science. The conceptual framework that informed the study considers the body as a site…

This article recounts a day at Mexican writer, activist, educator, and performance artist Lia García's "elementary school": a "school" that takes the form of invited performances in other teachers' classrooms. It studies García's staging of an applied theatre workshop at an elementary school in November 2020 with her children's…

An extremist, political "will to truth" has been driven by pernicious falsifications in recent election campaigns in the United States and worldwide. The fake, "post-truth" logic of this nationalistic zeal slanders and defrauds the empirical research of art, and its pedagogical potential for thinking otherwise, by its…

This research study used quantitative data analysis techniques to examine if participation in a live, virtual arts experience increased student interest in the arts. The study explored three key research questions: What is the impact of a live interactive virtual arts experience on student interest in the arts? Does participating in an interactive…

Reflecting on a prototype event, "A Recovery Arts Café," this article examines how recovery communities can be staged through collaborative performance events that directly engage with what it means to be "in recovery" from addiction. I theorise recovery and performance practice as particular forms of affective ecology, or…

This article examines how performance-oriented arts practice with members of socially marginalised communities can be harnessed as a mode of grassroots civic participation, one that can transgress the expected norms of public communication that render some stories and speakers legitimate, and some not. The article will offer an analysis of a…

This study examines Bertolt Brecht's theatrical techniques in terms of critical pedagogy and their potential application by critical educators to overcome neoliberalization, neoconservatization, and authoritarization in learning environments. Brecht creates his 'learning plays' in a peculiar form that can be called 'Brechtian dialectics'. Brecht…

Background: Applied Theatre (AT) is a relatively recently-created interdisciplinary field that includes investigation of the social and educational uses of its practices. Since its emergence as a discipline in the 1990s, research has proliferated. However, to better understand the breadth and depth of AT's social and educational applications,…