1st Edition
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People
This companion interrogates the relationship between theatre and youth from a global perspective, taking in performances and theatre made by, for, and about young people.
These different but interrelated forms of theatre are addressed through four critical themes that underpin the ways in which analysis of contemporary theatre in relation to young people can be framed: political utterances – exploring the varied ways theatre becomes a platform for political utterance as a process of dialogic thinking and critical imagining; critical positioning – examining youth theatre work that navigates the sensitive, dynamic, and complex terrains in which young people live and perform; pedagogic frames – outlining a range of contexts and programmes in which young people learn to make and understand theatre that reflects their artistic capacities and aesthetic strategies; applying performance – discussing a range of projects and companies whose work has been influential in the development of youth theatre within specific contexts.
Providing critical, research-informed, and research-based discussions on the intersection between young people, their representation, and their participation in theatre, this is a landmark text for students, scholars, and practitioners whose work and thinking involves theatre and young people.
1. Introduction
Selina Busby, Kelly Freebody and Charlene Rajendran
Part 1: Political Utterances
2. Bodyliness in European applied theatre projects. Reflecting on the importance of inviting the body to the Workshop’s Room
Gabriel Vivas-Martínez
Reflection 1: On the Importance of Big Umbrellas: Applied Theatre as a Hopeful Practice in Precarious Times
Kathleen Gallagher.
3. Becoming Giants: Towards Oceania Through Mastery of Bodily Skills and Techniques.
Peilin Liang
4. Navigating Adultism in Critical Youth Theatre Practice
Matthew Elliot
Reflection 2: We are Still Here and Why We Do Theatre
Mardin Mahmoudpour
5. The Manipulation of Mowgli: Performing Youth, Deconstructing Racialization, and Tracing Imperialism in The Jungle Book.
Asif Majid
6. Shakespeare Youth Performance Festivals as Spaces for Postcolonial Restorying
Jennifer Kitchen
Reflection 3: What defines the dramaturgy of Young Peoples Theatre (YPYT) And who defines it?
Janet Pillai
7. Performing Violence, devising Futures? Performance with and by Young People in Rwanda and Uganda
Hope Azeda, Lillian Mbabazi, and Bobby Smith
Reflection 4: Theatre to Raise a Village.
Patrick Alesana, Irene Folau, Agnes Milford, et al.
8. Scotland’s Youth Theatre and Drama Sector.
William D Barlow and Douglas Irvine
Part 2: Critical Positioning
9. Arena Theatre Company: Making theatre with young people as a methodology for making theatre for young people
Meg Upton, Richard Sallis, Christian Leavesley, et al.
Reflection 5: Theatre Makes Me Think Again
Kirubael Alebachew.
10. ‘Home Grown' Productions for Their Own Young People: Researching Community Theatre Groups in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Emma Durden
11. Re-thinking "theatre" during social distancing: How Cosmic Kids Yoga got us through a pandemic.
Dani Snyder-Young, with Des Bennett, Anna Birnholz et al.
12. Theatre of Hope: PaGaSa in the Praxis of Youth Advocates Through Theatre Arts (YATTA)
Dessa Quesada Palm and Jazmin Llana
13. Trials and Tribulations: Creating Theatre for Young Audiences With or Without Youth
David Montgomery, Gina L. Grandi, Teresa A. Fisher et al.
Reflection 6: At the Water’s Edge: Theatre as a Space for Reflection
Theo Chen.
14. Between Past and Future: Edward Bond and he Representation of Adolescent Crisis
Martin Heaney
15. The Imagined Child Onstage: Theatrical Depictions of Parental Grief during Transition for Youth on the Autism Spectrum
Molly Mattaini
Reflection 7: Theatre: the humanizing social metaphor.
Sanjoy Ganguly
16. Access to Theatre for Young People in India: Thespo’s Journey through Change and Challenge from 1999 to 2021
Srishti Ray and Srividya
17. Verbatim Formula: Affect, Agency and Participatory Performance with Care-experienced Young People
Maggie Inchley and Sylvan Baker
Part 3: Pedagogic Frames
18. "Writing What Matters to me": Voicing Latinx Youth Concerns Through Theatre Scriptwriting
Claudia G. Pineda, Rossella Santagata, and Joseph Jenkins.
19. Let Them Speak: Devised Theatre as a Culturally Responsive Methodology for Secondary Students
Jonathan P. Jones.
Reflection 8: A Chain of Creative Bombs
Tom Anderson
20. Artistic and Pedagogical Experience at the Casa do Teatro, Brazil, and its Tradition
Lígia Cortez.
21. Botanical Drama- Theatre for Young People
Justine Marie Bruyère.
Reflection 9: "But damn it, without the illusion, what would man have been then?"
Stig A. Eriksson.
22. To the syllabus and Beyond: Yong People learning Through Theatre Making in Australian Schools.
Katy Walsh and Christine Hatton
23. Introduction: Reflecting on making Drama in secondary schools.
Jane Isobel Luton and Holly Charlotte Luton.
Reflection 10: What’s it like your youth theatre like?
Ella Sutton and Kate Sutton
24. Artist and teacher supported extra-curricular theatre in secondary schools: Exploring the benefits of a ‘betwixt and between’ youth theatre form
Jennifer Penton, Julie Dunn, Linda Hassall, et al.
25. Making Space: a community-engaged youth theatre practice grounded in care.
Alysha Herrmann, Claire Glenn and Sarah Peters.
Part 4: Applying Performance
Reflection 11: Dancing towards Dreams
Helen Nicholson
26. ‘What does transformative justice look like?’: Clean Break Theatre Company and the Young Artists Development Programme
Sarah Bartley
27. SExT: Sex Education by Theatre — Empowering youth from a community where sex is culturally taboo to take centre stage
Shira B. Taylor
Reflection 12: Theatre for Learning Expression and Empathy from the Margins
Kisan Salbul and Sana Shaikh
28. ‘I do the story I tell’ – Theatre-making for children living on the margins in Singapore.
Jennifer Wong
29. United we stand? Devised Theatre for Social Change with youth in a tumultuous America
Elizabeth Brendel Horn and Tonya Hays
30. All the Stage is a World: Prospects for Virtual Reality Theatre with Young People
Paul Rae and Jennifer Beckett
Reflection 13: A Life Changing Journey in the Karoo, South Africa
Adrian Tony
31. Young People’s Theatre in Thailand: A Performance Ecology Approach
Pornrat Damrhung
32. Imagining Alternative Futures for Marginalised Communities in Taiwan Through Devised Theatre with University Students in Educational and Community Settings
Wan-Jung Wang
Reflection 14: Moments of Truth
John O’Toole
Reflection 15: An Open Letter to Young Theatre Practitioners
Syed Jamil Ahmed
Biography
Selina Busby is professor of applied and social theatre at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her research and practice focuses on theatre that invites the possibility of change. She is a researcher who uses participatory and emancipatory research methods with people living in adverse conditions, both in the UK and internationally. Recent publications include Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia (2021).
Kelly Freebody is an associate professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on drama, applied theatre, social justice, creativity in education, and school-community relationships. Her teaching interests include drama pedagogy and critical perspectives in education. She is co-editor of the Applied Theatre Research Journal, and co-editor of the Routledge Learning Through Theatre series.
Charlene Rajendran is an associate professor at the National Institute of Education – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is a theatre educator, researcher, and dramaturg whose interests include contemporary performance, play-based pedagogy, and arts leadership. She is currently the co-director of the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network.
