Jane Plastow – författare

Theatre and Empowerment examines the ability of drama, theatre, dance and performance to empower communities of very different kinds, and it does so from a multi-cultural perspective. The communities involved include poverty-stricken children in Ethiopia and the Indian sub-continent, disenfranchised Native Americans in the USA and young black men in Britain, victims of violence in South Africa and Northern Ireland, and a threatened agricultural town in Italy. The book asserts the value of performance as a vital agent of necessary social change, and makes its arguments through the close examination, from 'inside' practice, of the success - not always complete - of specific projects in their practical and cultural contexts. Practitioners and commentators ask how performance in its widest sense can play a part in community activism on a scale larger than the individual, 'one-off' project by helping communities find their own liberating and creative voices.

Theatre, in a variety of forms and contexts, can make, and indeed has made, positive political and social interventions in a range of developing cultures across the world. In this book a distinguished team of theatre historians and dramatists explores how theatre has a dynamic and often difficult relationship with societies and states, arguing positively that theatrical activity can make a difference. The collection begins with a foreword by Wole Soyinka and, through the volume, specially chosen plays, projects and movements are examined, embracing a variety of theatrical forms from conventional text to on-site developmental work. The communities addressed range from the national to the local, from middle-class elites to the economically dispossessed in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, Nigeria, Eritrea and South Africa, and India and the Caribbean countries.

Theatre, in a variety of forms and contexts, can make, and indeed has made, positive political and social interventions in a range of developing cultures across the world. In this book a distinguished team of theatre historians and dramatists explores how theatre has a dynamic and often difficult relationship with societies and states, arguing positively that theatrical activity can make a difference. The collection begins with a foreword by Wole Soyinka and, through the volume, specially chosen plays, projects and movements are examined, embracing a variety of theatrical forms from conventional text to on-site developmental work. The communities addressed range from the national to the local, from middle-class elites to the economically dispossessed in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, Nigeria, Eritrea and South Africa, and India and the Caribbean countries.

Theatre and Empowerment examines the ability of drama, theatre, dance and performance to empower communities of very different kinds, and it does so from a multi-cultural perspective. The communities involved include poverty-stricken children in Ethiopia and the Indian sub-continent, disenfranchised Native Americans in the USA and young black men in Britain, victims of violence in South Africa and Northern Ireland, and a threatened agricultural town in Italy. The book asserts the value of performance as a vital agent of necessary social change, and makes its arguments through the close examination, from 'inside' practice, of the success - not always complete - of specific projects in their practical and cultural contexts. Practitioners and commentators ask how performance in its widest sense can play a part in community activism on a scale larger than the individual, 'one-off' project by helping communities find their own liberating and creative voices.

How may the lives of individuals and a community be impacted by a durational applied theatre and arts-based project? What lessons does it provide for arts practitioners working for social change?Offering a unique account of the first 7 years of an on-going arts-based programme of research, creative activity and activism in a marginalized Ugandan community, this book presents the voices and insights of those involved in the form of articles and creative works.The long-term creative partnership between European and Ugandan academics, artists and an intergenerational community of Ugandan citizens led to a series of linked, arts-led, action research and impact projects aimed at informing and empowering a slum community in the city of Jinja in eastern Uganda. The projects addressed issues of environmental concerns, gender, sexual and reproductive health, domestic violence, corruption, housing, workplace insecurity and creativity. In this book, participants respond to work carried out using anthropology, theatre, film, photography, art, poetry, dance and music, arguing collectively that creativity is a powerful route to self and community realization and human development.The book illustrates the importance of on-going, long-term support when working with particularly disadvantaged people and demonstrates that the complex matrix of marginalization experienced by the poorest, requires responsive, multi-faceted action. This revelatory account shares failures, problems and successes in the voices of those who participated in making the work.

How may the lives of individuals and a community be impacted by a durational applied theatre and arts-based project? What lessons does it provide for arts practitioners working for social change?Offering a unique account of the first 7 years of an on-going arts-based programme of research, creative activity and activism in a marginalized Ugandan community, this book presents the voices and insights of those involved in the form of articles and creative works.The long-term creative partnership between European and Ugandan academics, artists and an intergenerational community of Ugandan citizens led to a series of linked, arts-led, action research and impact projects aimed at informing and empowering a slum community in the city of Jinja in eastern Uganda. The projects addressed issues of environmental concerns, gender, sexual and reproductive health, domestic violence, corruption, housing, workplace insecurity and creativity. In this book, participants respond to work carried out using anthropology, theatre, film, photography, art, poetry, dance and music, arguing collectively that creativity is a powerful route to self and community realization and human development.The book illustrates the importance of on-going, long-term support when working with particularly disadvantaged people and demonstrates that the complex matrix of marginalization experienced by the poorest, requires responsive, multi-faceted action. This revelatory account shares failures, problems and successes in the voices of those who participated in making the work.

A collection of playscripts and texts that give an English-reading audience access to key plays as well as less well-known and previously untranslated works - a superb resource for scholars and theatre practitioners.This volume makes available some of the most influential, imaginative and exciting plays to come out of East and West Africa from the 1970s to the present day. Deliberately excluding playscripts by the regions' two best known playwrights, Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, whose work was profiled in African Theatre 13 the editors have selected plays, some well-known and some less widely available, that represent the diversity and richness of thesetwo very different African regions. The playscripts include a new translation from Amharic, as well as the English version of a play originally written in French, making more theatre from some of Africa's multitude of languages accessible to an English-reading audience. Each script is accompanied by an essay from an expert on the work, the playwright, and the context in which the play was produced, so that the volume will be of maximum use to both researchers and students of African theatre.Volume Editors: MARTIN BANHAM & JANE PLASTOWSeries Editors: Martin Banham, Emeritus Professor of Drama & Theatre Studies, University of Leeds; James Gibbs, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of the West of England; Femi Osofisan, Professor of Drama, University of Ibadan; Jane Plastow, Professor of African Theatre, University of Leeds; Yvette Hutchison, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, University of Warwick

This book is the first ever transnational theatre study of an African region. A History of African Theatre is relevant to all who have interests in African cultures and their relationship to the history and politics of the East African region.

This book is the first ever transnational theatre study of an African region. A History of African Theatre is relevant to all who have interests in African cultures and their relationship to the history and politics of the East African region.

The final chapter, on Theatre for Development and related social action theatre, covers the whole East African region, offering the first ever historicised analysis of this mode of theatre making which, since the 1980s, has come to dominate funding and opportunity in performance arts.