Warren Linds – författare

This book explores the concept of reflection through a dramaturgical lens as practitioners in a wide range of disciplines hold up the mirror to their own practice using theatre and theatricality as a way of unpacking their individual and collective practice. Editors and authors consider the use of drama as the vehicle through which learning takes place for the leader, facilitator or manager of an experience rather than the use of drama and theatre as a tool for learning subject content.

Reflective practice is an often cited term in the professional thesaurus of educators, social work practitioners and health care workers. It is perhaps less commonly thought of as the purview of leaders of industry, marketing managers and scientists. We define reflective practice in this context as the development of capacities to reflect on actions, behaviours and attitudes that impact on your own practice, or on the way others engage in their practice, so as to be part of a process of continuous learning. It is therefore crucial for any professional to understand how and why we behave and interact with others the way we do.

This book explores tools and techniques for creating the arts with groups. It provides insights into why workshops are such an effective and relevant form of creative practice. Throughout, two experienced practitioners share successful principles and qualities. They also include examples of workshops that explore ways of facilitating creative exploration.

The authors believe that underpinning any good workshop practice is an understanding of what constitutes a workshop. This is a process in which the relationship between artist/researcher and participant/audience, maker, and witness is fluid. It extends each individual’s abilities and connects doing to learning to inquiring in a single process. The book itself is a dialogue on, and an investigation into, this practice. It fully explores the specificities of workshop practice in relation to how it engages others in arts-based research.

Readers learn how workshops involve inquiry into six areas:inquiry into subjects, artistic processes, skills, self, the world, and relationships with others. In the end, this informed investigation helps practitioners to better reflect on their own approaches to arts-based inquiry and research. This, in turn, leads to a better understanding of how readers can use workshops for the maximum benefit of all participants, both individuals and groups.