Chapter 1: Introducing Responsivity and the Applied Theatre Practitioner.
Chapter 2: The Applied Theatre Artist as responsive educator: Grafted expertise and a search for the ‘golden nugget’.
Chapter 3: The Applied Theatre Artist as responsive activist: The personal is political in a feminist approach.
Chapter 4: The Applied Theatre Artist as responsive clown: A ‘beautiful mistake’ in learning disabled theatre.
Chapter 5: The Applied Theatre Artist as responsive dialogue: The art of doing less in a creative aging project.
Chapter 6: The Applied Theatre Artist as responsive performer: Defining the role in work with young people.
Chapter 7: Responsivity and the development of Applied Theatre Practitioner.
Dr Kay Hepplewhite teaches and supervises Drama and Applied Theatre students and researchers at Northumbria University, UK, and previously at York St John University, UK. Her PhD was awarded from University of Manchester, UK, in 2017. Before becoming a lecturer, she worked in Theatre in Education, and in community and youth theatre.
This book analyses the work of applied theatre practitioners using a new framework of ‘responsivity’ to make visible their unique expertise. In-depth investigation of practice combines with theorisation to provide a fresh view of the work of artists and facilitators. Case studies are drawn from community contexts: with women, mental health service users, refugees, adults with a learning disability, older people in care, and young people in school. Common skills and qualities are given a vocabulary to help define applied theatre work, such as awareness, anticipation, adaptation, attunement, and responsiveness.
The Applied Theatre Artist is of scholarly, practical, and educational interest. The book offers detailed analysis of how skilled theatre artists make in-action decisions within socially engaged participatory projects. Rich description of in-session activity reveals what workshop facilitators actually do and how they think, offering a rare focus in applied theatre.