Theatre in Education – serie

Gavin Bolton’s Contextual Drama is the result of more than two decades of study of Bolton’s theory and practice. For teachers and those in the caring professions, it will clarify the power of contextual drama as a beneficial learning medium for children and adults, both within and beyond the classroom. The core of the book is a detailed analysis of nine examples of the contextual drama mode; the first five demonstrate and analyse Bolton’s practice with children and young people and the final four describe his teaching with adults. Each chapter is framed by an introduction that contextualizes Bolton, from his initial beginnings working with visually and aurally-challenged children to his position as reader in drama at Durham University. The final two chapters offer reflection on the nature of this work and, in particular, the significance of Bolton’s contributions to education.

Theatre teachers are forced to adapt constantly. Whether responding to advancing technologies, cuts to (or the growth of) their programme or ever-changing governmental mandates, they struggle to serve both their students and their craft. Using a theatre arts programme at one Midwestern high school, this book explores how change, good or ill, directly impacts students as well as teachers. Building on the work of the previous edition of Temporary Stages, Jo Beth Gonzalez shows teachers how to sustain confidence and outlines ‘critically conscious’ teaching, a technique that encourages students to practise self-agency and critical awareness. Essential reading for all theatre teachers, this indispensable resource is a font of innovative classroom and production practices.

The Student Actor Prepares is a practical, interactive approach to a student actor’s journey. Each chapter includes acting principles, their importance to the process and workbook entries for emotional work, script analysis and applications to the study of theatre. Topics cover a brief history of the art of acting and how the study of acting can be an advantage in numerous occupations; an actor’s discovery of emotional work; movement and mime practices for the actor; vocal practices for the actor; solo improvisational study; script analysis for the individual actor; rehearsal tips; monologue work; original solo work; audition information; working with an acting partner or in a production; acting resources; and research topics.

The Reflexive Teaching Artist invites Teaching Artists at all levels of experience to consider the power of reflective practice. Kathryn Dawson and Daniel A. Kelin, II offer a reflective framework – a series of foundational concepts, including intentionality, quality, artistic perspective, assessment and praxis – illuminated through reflexive case-study examples from Teaching Artists in a wide range of settings. The authors write from the dual perspectives of artist and educator to raise fundamental questions about the complex intentions, relationships and function of the teaching artist in school, community and professional theatre settings. Through questions, guided reflection activities, collected wisdom from the field, and an introductory action-research model, Dawson, Kelin and their contributors closely examine the practice of teaching in, through and about drama and theatre.

This collection of essays from many of the world’s preeminent drama education practitioners captures the challenges and struggles of teaching with honesty, humour, openness and integrity. Collectively the authors possess some two hundred years of shared experience in the field, and each essay investigates the mistakes of best-intentions, the lack of awareness, and the omissions that pock all of our careers. The authors ask, and answer quite honestly, a series of difficult and reflexive questions: What obscured our understanding of our students’ needs in a particular moment? What drove our professional expectations?  And how has our practice changed as a result of those experiences? Modelled on reflective practice, this book will be an essential, everyday guide to the challenges of drama education.

Arts Integration in Education is an insightful, even inspiring investigation into the enormous possibilities for change that are offered by the application of arts integration in education. Presenting research from a range of settings, from preschool to university, and featuring contributions from scholars and theorists, educational psychologists, teachers and teaching artists, the book offers a comprehensive exploration and varying perspectives on theory, impact and practices for arts-based training and arts-integrated instruction across the curriculum.

Theatre for Youth Third Space is a practical yet philosophically grounded handbook for people working in theatre and performance with children and youth in community or educational settings. Presenting asset development approaches, deliberative dialogue techniques and frames for building strong community relationships, Stephani Etheridge Woodson shares multiple project models that are firmly grounded in the latest community cultural development practices. Guiding readers step by step through project planning, creating safe environments and using evaluation protocols, Theatre for Youth Third Space will be an invaluable resource for both teaching and practice.

Following the first collection of story drama structures, Into the Story 2: More Stories! More Drama! presents a well-argued approach to the value of children’s picture books as a way to look at contemporary issues of social justice while building connections that promote a literacy that is multi-dimensional. Story drama structures offer teachers opportunities for the rich conversations and deep reflections that foster habits of mind critical for life in the twenty-first century. This new volume, piloted internationally over the last decade, will become an invaluable resource for uncovering curricula in ways that are fresh and innovative for students and teachers of all levels.

Six years after its initial publication, Applied Theatre returns with a second edition. As the first book to assist practitioners and students to develop critical frameworks for implementing their own theatrical projects, it served as a vital addition to this area of growing interest, winning the Distinguished Book of the Year award from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. Editors Monica Prendergast and Juliana Saxton have updated the book to reflect shifts in practice over the last few years in the world of applied theatre. Drawing on their backgrounds in drama education and pedagogy, the co-editors offer introductory chapters and dozens of case studies on applied theatre projects around the globe. This new edition of Applied Theatre will encourage students and practitioners to acquire a deeper understanding of the field and its best practices.

John Newman invites teachers to take their students on a playwriting voyage in Playwriting in Schools. The book examines how students who learn to write plays and work with a professional playwright in residence empower themselves and gives instructors tools for teaching the process of playwriting in a way that makes space for the student voice. Playwriting in Schools investigates two main approaches for adult teachers and playwrights to use playwriting as a strategy for student self-expression. One approach is through the creation of fully-developed plays, written either by individual students with instruction from teachers or through interactions between a team of students and a teacher-playwright. The other approach is developing plays through collaborations among professional playwrights, teachers and student actors, crafting new plays in ways that suit the needs, interests and learning of young people. Throughout, Newman and the teachers and playwrights he features express themselves with an artistic generosity that encourages us to widen the scope of our own programmes by introducing students to the vast ocean of playwriting and play development. Part of the Theatre in Education series.

Arts Integration in Education is an insightful, even inspiring investigation into the enormous possibilities for change that are offered by the application of arts integration in education. Presenting research from a range of settings, from preschool to university, and featuring contributions from scholars and theorists, educational psychologists, teachers and teaching artists, the book offers a comprehensive exploration and varying perspectives on theory, impact and practices for arts-based training and arts-integrated instruction across the curriculum.

Theatre for Lifelong Learning is a step-by-step guide for anyone interested in teaching theatre courses and creating theatre with older adults.This book provides instructors with syllabi, discussion questions, classroom management strategies, resource lists, and activities to teach courses from beginning to end. Special topics include Playwriting, Play Development, Storytelling, Theatre Appreciation, Theatre Criticism, Theatre History, and Theatre Theory.This book helps readers become confident, informed instructors of older adult learners. Theatre for Lifelong Learning is a tool for anyone who wants to build theatrical communities and support the emotional well-being of older adults through education, practice, and experimentation while also having fun.Theatre for Lifelong Learning is a complete guide to navigate the theatre classroom from beginning to end. Anyone can become a theatre expert and educator with practice. If you already have a background in performing arts, this book provides strategies that are useful for you as well. If you have experience as an educator, this book will enrich your current skill set with interdisciplinary approaches. Tips and examples throughout assist you in creating and maintaining an accessible environment and making courses your own. So how can teaching and learning about theatre help us live in the moment? When we are not engaged, it’s easy to forget that we are capable, curious, creative people who can expand our knowledge and experiences every day. Theatre encourages finding meaning in small things, chance encounters, and the tapestry of life. All the material provided in this book will motivate instructors and students to get involved.It will be most useful for arts practitioners, participatory practitioners, institutional educators and community outreach officers, independent theatre instructors. Of potential interest to scholars and researchers in age studies, or in teaching and learning.  May also be useful for community arts organizations, regional theatres, and non-profit organizations working with older adults.

Theatre for Lifelong Learning is a step-by-step guide for anyone interested in teaching theatre courses and creating theatre with older adults.This book provides instructors with syllabi, discussion questions, classroom management strategies, resource lists, and activities to teach courses from beginning to end. Special topics include Playwriting, Play Development, Storytelling, Theatre Appreciation, Theatre Criticism, Theatre History, and Theatre Theory.This book helps readers become confident, informed instructors of older adult learners. Theatre for Lifelong Learning is a tool for anyone who wants to build theatrical communities and support the emotional well-being of older adults through education, practice, and experimentation while also having fun.Theatre for Lifelong Learning is a complete guide to navigate the theatre classroom from beginning to end. Anyone can become a theatre expert and educator with practice. If you already have a background in performing arts, this book provides strategies that are useful for you as well. If you have experience as an educator, this book will enrich your current skill set with interdisciplinary approaches. Tips and examples throughout assist you in creating and maintaining an accessible environment and making courses your own. So how can teaching and learning about theatre help us live in the moment? When we are not engaged, it’s easy to forget that we are capable, curious, creative people who can expand our knowledge and experiences every day. Theatre encourages finding meaning in small things, chance encounters, and the tapestry of life. All the material provided in this book will motivate instructors and students to get involved.It will be most useful for arts practitioners, participatory practitioners, institutional educators and community outreach officers, independent theatre instructors. Of potential interest to scholars and researchers in age studies, or in teaching and learning.  May also be useful for community arts organizations, regional theatres, and non-profit organizations working with older adults.

This substantially revised and expanded edition of the The Drama Therapy Decision Tree provides an integrated model for therapeutic decision-making by uniting drama therapy interventions with diagnostic information, individual and group processes, psychological distance, the drama therapy pie, and global outcomes.This book is a practical guide in four sections, not a checklist. Rather than using a standardized protocol that makes the decisions for the therapist, drama therapy is based on dynamic, embodied, creative action with participants in the here and now. Conscious planning on the part of the drama therapist before the session supports spontaneity and creativity, preparing them to make good therapeutic decisions in the moment during the session.The opening section guides readers through the foundational principles leading readers into Section Two, The Decision Tree, which is a series of questions for early career drama therapists to ask themselves as they prepare treatment plans for clients. Diversity, Equity, and Ethics are covered in Section Three from the point of view of creative arts therapy practitioners. Section Four looks at Integrating the Five Phases of Treatment with the Drama Therapy Pie, following different populations (diagnosis) of clients through the five phases of group therapy in order to illustrate how the Decision Tree supports intervention choice in the different phases of treatment.The authors strive to provide a common language for communicating what drama therapists do and how they do it in order to demystify drama therapy for other mental health and medical professionals. Using the decision tree as a guide, early career drama therapists can move forward confidently and ground their work with participants in an integrated system. An online searchable database of drama therapy interventions provides descriptions, therapeutic outcomes addressed, and other useful information provides a wealth of additional supporting material. There is also a separate online resource of deroling activities. The online resources, here, can also be an asset for non-drama therapists who are wanting to incorporate a more active and embodied component safely into their work, particularly in terms of warm-ups, closure, and deroling.

Applied Theatre was the first collection to assist practitioners and students in developing critical frameworks for their own community-based theatrical projects. The editors draw on thirty case studies in applied theatre from fifteen countries—covering a wide range of disciplines, from theatre studies to education, medicine, and law—and collect essential readings to provide a comprehensive survey of the field.Infused with a historical and theoretical overview of practical theatre, Applied Theatre offers clear developmental approaches and models for practical application.This third edition offers refreshed case studies from many countries worldwide that provide exemplars for the practice of applied theatre. The book will be useful to both instructors and students, in its focus on providing clear introductory chapters that lay out the scope of the field, dozens of case studies in all areas of the field, and a new chapter on responses to the global pandemic of 2020.Also includes a new section on representation in its final chapter, looking at the issues of how we represent ourselves and others on stage.

This substantially revised and expanded edition of the The Drama Therapy Decision Tree provides an integrated model for therapeutic decision-making by uniting drama therapy interventions with diagnostic information, individual and group processes, psychological distance, the drama therapy pie, and global outcomes.This book is a practical guide in four sections, not a checklist. Rather than using a standardized protocol that makes the decisions for the therapist, drama therapy is based on dynamic, embodied, creative action with participants in the here and now. Conscious planning on the part of the drama therapist before the session supports spontaneity and creativity, preparing them to make good therapeutic decisions in the moment during the session.The opening section guides readers through the foundational principles leading readers into Section Two, The Decision Tree, which is a series of questions for early career drama therapists to ask themselves as they prepare treatment plans for clients. Diversity, Equity, and Ethics are covered in Section Three from the point of view of creative arts therapy practitioners. Section Four looks at Integrating the Five Phases of Treatment with the Drama Therapy Pie, following different populations (diagnosis) of clients through the five phases of group therapy in order to illustrate how the Decision Tree supports intervention choice in the different phases of treatment.The authors strive to provide a common language for communicating what drama therapists do and how they do it in order to demystify drama therapy for other mental health and medical professionals. Using the decision tree as a guide, early career drama therapists can move forward confidently and ground their work with participants in an integrated system. An online searchable database of drama therapy interventions provides descriptions, therapeutic outcomes addressed, and other useful information provides a wealth of additional supporting material. There is also a separate online resource of deroling activities. The online resources, here, can also be an asset for non-drama therapists who are wanting to incorporate a more active and embodied component safely into their work, particularly in terms of warm-ups, closure, and deroling.

There is no one-size-fits-all way to keep pace with the changes affecting students and those who educate them. That’s why Joan Lazarus has gathered here the insights of hundreds of theater teachers and teaching artists on how they have responded to the shifting demands of theater education in today’s schools. She paints a portrait of active, dynamic professionals who build vibrant programs and confront challenges in a variety of ways—from inclusive, interactive lessons to comprehensive programs that address the impact of poverty, race, gender, and spirituality on students’ lives. In the process, she shows how real teachers bring about real change. An accessible and up-to-date guide to best practices in theater education, this expanded and revised edition encompasses new hands-on activities—drawn from the author’s in-depth interviews and research.