This thesis examines the transformative potential of applied theatre, specifically through a study of the playmaking process, and the embodiment and performance of stories, as a tool for middle school girls to articulate ideas about and personalize the notion of leadership. This study documents the theory and practitioners who informed my work in the creation and implementation of an applied theatre program piloted in the fall of 2009. Through a process of qualitative, reflective practitioner research, I examined the participants’ perceptions of, and relationship to, leadership throughout the project, while simultaneously analyzing my own changing perceptions of what it means to lead and facilitate an applied theatre process and performance. The resulting discussion offers a need for a balance between the process and the product in applied theatre, and most importantly the need for practitioners to continuously reexamine their intentions and practices throughout an applied theatre project. / text

This research proposes a new conceptual framework combining ideas of witnessing (observing) and change to understand possibilities for participatory theatre practice (PT) to impact vulnerable youth. This thesis was arrived at after longitudinal studies investigating the possibilities for change offered by responsive participatory theatre projects designed in collaboration with and for vulnerable groups at Kids Company. The findings emerging from the enquiry are the importance of humanising the facilitator, the necessarily temporary nature of participant performances of change in volatile settings, ‘witnessing change’ as a new type of impact relevant to vulnerable youth and the risks involved for vulnerable youth performing change in unresponsive or counter-responsive institutional settings. This research suggests that further enquiries are needed to investigate the concept of witnessing change as a new type of ‘impact’ which is necessarily temporary and multi-layered. Current perspectives of impact and impact assessment place value on achieving measurable outcomes. This research argues that current models of impact assessment should value temporary change even if it is confined to the workshop space where participants witness change in one another and the facilitator witnesses change in participants. This research is positioned within a framework incorporating ideas of witnessing, change and impact. The research is contextualised within the current socio-economic climate. The projects took place with vulnerable youth who accessed Kids Company’s support in South-East London. The urgency of this research is discussed in relation to the aftermath of the August 2011 UK riots. The research investigates the possibilities of using PT as a tool to expose and challenge constructs and found that PT can provide opportunities for impact and value to be witnessed as a way of sustaining change. The methodology of this research combined ethnographic and practice-based approaches to capture a plurality of voices to understand multiple readings of impact. It was important to include multiple voices to triangulate findings and address key challenges that arose due to the collaborative nature of this research conducted with Kids Company. Balancing a fair representation of Kids Company with critical readings of the provisions provided by the charity was one of the challenges within this research. A reflexive approach to the enquiry was employed to note researcher subjectivity and multiple perspectives were included to capture the complexity of Kids Company settings. The research will contribute a new holistic approach for practice in the field of PT, where PT is used as a process of humanisation. The research will also contribute new strategies of facilitation for practitioners working with vulnerable youth in similar contexts. In addition, the research may also contribute to the fields of child development and social change strategies through the concept of witnessing change as a new approach to understanding the impact of participatory theatre.

The London Turkish Cypriot (LTC) community has been described as ‘invisible’, a community at the point of eradication (Aksoy and Robins 2001). For three generations of LTCs the process of cultural identification has seen an evolution from migration and ‘homeland’ association, to critical displacement, assimilation and different perceptions of what is ‘home’. The growing diversity in cultural identification is further reflected in enhanced access to spatial consumption, mobility and choices of emplacement for its younger generations. This PhD is driven by practice-as-research. The practice, and therefore line of reasoning, behind this research is an ongoing, organic process that has shifted throughout the course of the thesis. The documentation of the practice-as-research is included in the accompanying DVD and is integral to the findings of this thesis. The thesis asks how LTC youth ‘perform’ their identities and negotiate a diaspora identity that is in constant flux. The enquiry consists of two main lines of enquiry. First, I am exploring how young people use public spaces through mobility and a ‘mobile’ culture, using mobile initiated technology to further explore the idea of movement and flux. Second, I progress towards a greater understanding of the participating young LTCs’ concept of ‘home’ and what elements of their every day performative behaviour, their environment and relational spaciality construct and support these home-making practices. The thesis addresses complex issues arising out of auto ethnographic practice-as-research of the LTC community, conducted through applied drama practices with its youth. Issues include identifying young participants’ relationship to cultural space, place making and notions of ‘home’ as part of their identity construction process. The thesis also discusses the ‘fit’ of applied drama as a qualitative research tool within this context and the fluidity of changing technologies that can be, and are at times, used to document examples of practice.

This is a practice as research (PAR) study that investigates Process drama as a pedagogical methodology for second language acquisition. The dramas were structured around role play in fictional situations designed to improve the pupils' vocabulary in English, mainly using the strategies of Teacher in Role and Mantle of the Expert. This research demonstrates the effect and affect of placing the pupils in experiential learning environments that empower him/her to be a co-creator of knowledge, as well as the skills needed by the researcher to facilitate this process. The pilot study was designed for implementation over four months, with pupils in second language English classes in grades 2 and 3 (i.e. seven/eight years old). Qualitative research methods were used, including critical and reflexive ethnography, simple questionnaires, and unstructured interviews with teachers and pupils, Teachers' and Visitors' feedback, video recordings and the researcher's journal. The sample of participants was too small to make recommendations, but the study tested the Process Drama method and the techniques of role, Teacher-in-role and Mantle of the Expert. The analysis of the project draws from the theoretical principles applied in other case studies by practitioners in the field, comparing the methods used and their outcomes. As well as the assumption that Process Drama is a good way to teach language because it creates the space for emotion and cognition to co-exist within the learning space.

This study examines traditional and alternative citizenship models such as legal, flexible, global and cultural citizenship. These types of citizenship lay the foundation for the understanding of 'liminal citizenship.' This study identifies international students as liminal citizens and gauges the role of theatre in encouraging them to be civically engaged by creating a model for using applied theatre to 1) make international students aware of the possibilities of inclusion within their host community; and 2) empower them to become active members in it. / text

This thesis details the theoretical and practical implications of utilizing applied theatre as a tool for the exploration of youth identity and relationship to community. Drawing on traditions of ethnography and reflective practitioner research, this document explores the roles of identity and identity-based inequities as they relate to Mart Theatre Project, an applied theatre project aimed at engaging students in Mart, Texas in a larger community development initiative taking place in their town. The document comprises critical analyses of the roles of student identity, facilitator identity, and community identity as they pertain to a community-based applied theatre process and product. The resulting discussion argues for a continual awareness that that the applied theatre process is impacting and impacted by the identities of the facilitator and the participants. / text

This thesis advocates that young people’s participatory theatre in Britain is an important site for dialogue - both internally between young people and externally with those in positions of power and authority who have decision-making responsibilities in young people’s lives. Contextualising the work within the field of critical pedagogy, the thesis asks questions about how devised theatre with young participants can be an effective method to start conversations about young people’s identity and role in society. The research was conducted within a Participatory Action Research methodology, and involved about 600 young people from across Devon in a variety of pilot projects which became increasingly dialogic in form over the three years of study. Looking first at the complex issue of ‘youth’ identity within sociology, cultural studies, ethnography and geography, the thesis posits that the fields of theatre and performance studies have important contributions to make to an understanding of how identity is a performed and constructed concept. Building upon this premise, the second chapter overviews the existing field of young people’s participatory theatre in the UK, stipulating that a pedagogical framework built on an historicized understanding of educational theatre is essential to mapping the existing state of practice. This pedagogical framing allows for navigation through the increasingly impact-driven criteria which can profoundly shape the aesthetics and authorship of such work when conducted in the field. These (often silent) shaping forces are analysed through a set of case study examples. Chapter III defines and defends the framing of this work as a form of critical pedagogy, specifically exploring the definitions of dialogue and literac(ies) through case study examples of dialogic practice with young participants. Chapters IV and V examine the PAR research conducted over three years under the heading Vital Spaces/Vital Signs, which moved from small-scale pilot projects in youth centres to larger-scale ‘devised dialogues’ within more traditional theatre spaces. The praxis and findings encountered within the action research are detailed, and recommendations for future extended dialogic work are made.

Applied theatre is an umbrella term describing the practice of borrowing concepts from the conventional theatre and applying them to different disciplines. This thesis focuses on the use of applied theatre in teaching effective communication skills. Using the work of the Ariel Group and personal experiences working with the VCU da Vinci Center as examples, this paper demonstrates ways that underlying theatre concepts are used to teach communication skills. Additionally, this paper argues that there are many advantages for using theatre professors to teach communication skills to non-theatre students in other disciplines through the use of applied theatre methods. To support this argument examples are taken from the Critical Communications Group and my experiences teaching Public Speaking.

This qualitative study considers the way in which the 6-Part-Story-Method (6PSM) process, drawn from the field of Dramatherapy, can be used to explore, interpret and enhance the professional practice of those working in the broad context of education. Evolving from social constructivist/constructionist and relativist perspectives, the study explores the concepts of reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity as socially constructed acts. This was a longitudinal study consisting of two stages; Stage 1 involved a number of practical sessions exploring the 6PSM model with Image Theatre techniques over the period of a year. Stage 2 involved an evaluative session a year after the cessation of Stage 1. There were four participants in the study all of whom work within the broad education sector. The place of story creation, telling, listening and sharing is discussed as a core way of individuals and groups making sense of their experiences. In particular, the 6PSM process is used to provide a structural and theoretical base to the methodological process undertaken in the study, and as the key component in the development of embodied reflexive practice. Furthermore, connections are made to the development of embodied, reflexive learning experiences created by techniques adapted from the theory and practice of both Image Theatre and Dramatherapy. Results from the study suggest that the use of the 6PSM as a vehicle for embodied and reflexive learning may be a viable and valuable creative process for educational practitioners to engage with. Further, the results have led to the connection of story, reflexivity and applied theatre to produce a 3-dimensional model of embodied and reflexive practice that has 6PSM at its core. Implications from the research relate to organisational policy changes to incorporate opportunities for the development of 6PSM processes within groups, and changes to initial training for practitioners within the caring professions to incorporate the model of embodied, reflexive practice using 6PSM.

As current precarious ecological conditions require urgent and multi-scalar responses, performance has an opportunity to creatively respond to the ecological situation, opening up new ways of thinking and engaging the public’s imagination. Problematising differentiating practices that divide humans from ‘nature’, I suggest performance may highlight the interconnectedness of humans and the more-than-human world by theorising, revealing and critiquing ecological relationships. My research into an ecological performance aesthetic takes up this opportunity and conceives of new ways of critically thinking about performance. I engage a range of ecological philosophy, combined with ecodramaturgical analysis of performance, to theorise the intersection of performance and ecology. Ecodramaturgy (May 2010) combines ecocritical and applied approaches to performance with ecological ways of performance-making, and represents a critical extension to the discipline of performance studies. Drawing on the ecomaterialism of Bennett (2010), Latour (2004), Alaimo (2013) and Barad (2012), I theorise ‘nature’ as a set of interconnected relationships, which disrupts the binaries between urban/nature, nature/culture, human/nonhuman. I coin the neologism the bio-urban to reflect the vibrancy and material agency of ecological relationships in urban settings. The focus on urban-based practice resists the rural bias present in much ecological writing (Harvey 1993b) and addresses a gap in scholarship around urban ecology in relation to performance. This research centres on a wide variety of illustrative, broadly site-based performance events, including urban gardening performances (and my own practice), walking and cycling performances, installation, live art, theatre pieces and work in places such as streets, mountains, (urban) meadows, cemeteries and rivers. I consider the way in which performance engages with the world, through the interrelated and overlapping discourses of postcolonial ecology, human geography and urban ecology. An ecological performance aesthetic informs modes of practice, presentation and reception, within current ecological conditions. From the provocation of the bio-urban, I theorise immersion and ‘environmental participation’, drawing on the corporeality of our relationship to the space around us, following ecological phenomenology. I then examine oikos as (earthy or planetary) home and consider it in relation to dwelling, suggesting that ecological performance opens up a space for critiquing these ideas. The complex relationship between the local and global is characterised in performance through eco-cosmopolitanism (Heise 2008). Finally, I suggest a non-anthropocentric paradigm for performance, one that employs an ‘ecological anthropomorphism’ that accounts for the material agency of the more-than- human, as well as the human as a geophysical force (Chakrabarty 2012). The aim of the research is to articulate an ecological performance aesthetic, extending and developing the field of performance and ecology.