In the following text I will consider possible ways of using social theatre in social work. Studying connections between these fields is preceded by a brief introduction of chosen terms of the theory of social work and theatre, with definitions as the frame. The main objective of my work is the basic division of forms of social theatre and desribtion of its conditions in the Czech Republic. Social theatre as a self-contained system is not defined in the Czech literature yet. Comparing foreign sources and the terminology used in the Czech literature with knowledge of the protagonists' way of work were used to make the structure, so that the main representatives, authors and organizers could be named in relation to particular forms. Based on such a map of contemporary social theatre in our country using definitions and theoretical terms, the answer is offered to the question , whether theatre is a valuable tool of social work, what areas could benefit from it most, and what the specific benefits are from the point of view of values and objectives of social work. Keywords social work, community work, anti-oppressive practice, creativity, social theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, theatrical creation in the specific groups, community theatre

In the last thirty years, a movement in America helps students struggling with substance abuse and dependency. Only recently, in the 1970s to be precise, has there been any significant documentation that unveils the problem of substance abuse in college. Schools like Texas Tech University and Kennesaw State University are in the forefront helping hundreds of thousands of students who struggle to have a safe and productive college experience. These schools provide support systems, scholarships, and mentorship to those students who are free from drug use and dependence and are looking to further their education. It is my intent to demonstrate a growing need for these support systems and present a theatrical work that will raise awareness of this issue. Oftentimes, the issue of substance abuse is an embarrassing and uncomfortable topic for people to discuss. There are issues of denial at both the personal and academic level. By using theatre as a means to present this topic in a non-confrontational, engaging, and thoughtful manner, I contend that there can be progress in bringing Collegiate Recovery Programs to colleges nationwide. My play, A Way Back, will add to the canon of substance abuse plays with an emphasis on substance abuse recovery in college.

This thesis is a theoretical-empirical study divided into nine chapters. After the introduction, the second chapter focuses on the theoretical basis, defines the terms applied theatre (drama) and social theatre, which relates to the empirical part, and presents them in a broader context. The third chapter then provides an overview of projects implemented in the Czech Republic. The fourth chapter defines the immigrant experience and the psychosocial events connected with immigration. The fifth chapter provides a brief overview of the practical use of applied drama in the Czech conditions, in the Archa Theatre. The sixth chapter contains qualitative research on the theme of formative influences of theatre-music projects at the Archa Theatre and on several immigrants who participate in them. The seventh chapter is an empirical survey that profiles the audiences of these performances and describes their motivation for attending theatre projects with social outreach. The final, eighth chapter, provides a concluding overview of the whole work. The ninth chapter contains a bibliography and list of sources. KEY WORDS Applied drama, applied theatre, formative influences, immigration, immigrant, social theatre.

La tesi presenta i risultati di una articolata indagine sul teatro sociale tesa a delinearne la genealogia e le caratteristiche di metodo, alla luce dell’esperienza di laboratorio teatrali, spettacoli e feste realizzata presso gli Alzheimer Café di Milano. Ne sono emersi alcuni aspetti rilevanti. Il teatro sociale si radica nei movimenti di ricerca italiani degli anni ‘60 e ’70 e la nascita Nuovo Teatro. Ha assunto progressivamente una sua identità, impiegando quanto maturato in quegli anni per scopi di ordine sociale. Viene ritenuto sia un’etichetta che denomina diversi metodi e processi di intervento teatrale nel sociale, sia un metodo con propri criteri e obiettivi. Di fatto assomma nella sua pratica i diversi livelli performativi della rappresentazione, della relazione e dell’azione sociale, con la precisa intenzionalità di produrre, attraverso la pratica performativa teatrale, un cambiamento evolutivo nell'esperienza di vita della persona, del gruppo che partecipa al laboratorio e dell’intero sistema sociale che lo ospita, sia esso un’organizzazione oppure una comunità locale. I nodi critici rilevati sono l’inadeguatezza dei sistemi di valutazione, il non riconoscimento di uno specifico profilo professionale e di iter formativi condivisi e legittimati. / The dissertation presents the results of an articulated investigation on the TS for to describe its genealogy and its method, with reference to the experience of theatrical ateliers and labs, shows and feasts realized at the Alzheimer Cafè of Milan. Some relevant aspects came to light. The TS takes root in the Italian artistic movements during the Sixties and the Seventies and in the birth of the New Theatre. It progressively took on its own identity, employing the acquired for social aims. It is considered both a label to denominate all kinds of social theatrical methods, and a specific method with its criterions and purposes. Actually the TS integrates in its practice the different performative levels of representation, relationship and social action with the willfulness to produce, throughout the theatrical performative activities, a developing change in the individual’s life, in the group who participates at the atelier and in the social system involved, whether an organization or a local community. The unsolved issues are the inadequate evaluation systems, the nonrecognition of a specific professional role and of a shared and legitimate iter of training.

This research started as a quest to understand better the ethics of doing Theatre for Development/Applied Theatre with under-served, marginalized and vulnerable populations especially in post-conflict zones in the Global South. As a theatre practitioner-researcher from Africa who has lived and worked in post-conflict zones, I was interested in fostering appropriate ethical protocols for arts-based practices for social engagement, advocacy and social justice. Thus, in this dissertation, I focus on two concepts in applied theatre practice: participation and ethics. I examine how participation can be re-conceptualized in applied theatre practice and focus on the ethics around conducting research among vulnerable populations especially on refugees and internally displaced persons. On participation, I use existing case studies from various fields to argue that participation in community engagement and socially-engaged art practices can become a tool to reposition voices on the margin to the centre in order to unsettle centres of power. However, for this to happen, participation needs to engage a communicative action that is both epistemic and ontic in its approach. An epistemic discourse provides a way of seeing the world while an ontic discourse provides people with a way of being in the world. The former is a ‘theoretical’ discursive practice that is fundamentally epistemological, and the latter is an ‘embodied’ praxis that is fundamentally ontological. I examine the famous Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Kamiriithu Community Theatre project in Kenya and Michael Balfour et al’s refugee project in Australia to foreground this new thinking on verb-oriented and noun-oriented notions of participation. On ethics, I raise a series of critical questions around interventionist or humanitarian performances. It is hoped that these questions will deepen discourses in applied theatre practice and further challenge practitioners to rethink why we do what we do. Using narrative inquiry, I glean lessons from my field research facilitating drama workshop among secondary school students who have been internally displaced due to an ongoing socio-political crisis in Nigeria. I also reflect on my other applied theatre experiences in Canada and Sudan. I propose an ethical practice that is built on relational interaction. In the context of working in post-conflict zones or in places of war, I argue that precarity becomes a determining factor in framing the ethics of practice. The questions around ethics are raised to also draw attention to decolonizing ethical practices. Finally, I articulate the connection between participation and ethics in that participation becomes a tactic to ensure that applied theatre researchers/practitioners conduct their work in ethical ways. This is because through participation, concerned communities can challenge unethical practices and transform the research to create outcomes that are beneficial. Thus, as an example of reflective practitioner research, the projects in this dissertation offer opportunities to examine critically how participation has been conceptualized and the need for a decolonizing understanding towards ethics in applied theatre practice especially in post-conflict zones. / Graduate

L’objet de cette étude est d’interroger la place de l’improvisation dans la création théâtrale tunisienne, depuis ses origines – où elle apparaît dans des formes parathéâtrales, (el-Fdawi le conteur solo, Jha le blaguer sage, le théâtre d’ombre, etc.), jusqu’à nos jours. L’accent est mis sur les rapports organiques entre improvisation et dramaturgie, dans la formation et la création théâtrales en Tunisie, durant les dernières décennies. La notion d’"improturgie", qui traverse toute la thèse, rend compte d’une poïétique propre à de nombreux créateurs – tels Ezzeddine GANNOUN et Fadhel JAÏBI – qui consiste à construire une œuvre à partir du travail de plateau, à la recherche d’une écriture dramatique qui témoigne du contexte historique, culturel, social, idéologique et politique dans lequel elle s’inscrit. En l’absence d’un répertoire dramatique, l’"improturgie" apparaît ainsi non seulement comme un moteur d’activation dramaturgique sur la voie d’un théâtre militant – luttant contre l’impérialisme d’État et contre toute forme d’intégrisme – mais aussi comme un laboratoire de recherche pour des formes théâtrales encore inédites dans le monde arabo-musulman. / The subject of this study is to investigate the place of improvisation in the Tunisian theatrical creation since its inception, as it appears in many paratheatrical forms (such as el-fedawi, the solo storyteller, Jha, the wise joker, underground theatre, etc.), until nowadays. The focus is laid on the organic relationship between improvisation and dramatic art in Tunisian theatrical formation and creation throughout the last decades. The concept of "improturgie", which spans the whole dissertation, accounts for a poietic which is specific to particular playwrights such as Ezzeddine GANNOUN and Fadhel JAÏBI, and consists of making a play by drawing on the work on stage in the search for a playwrighting which reflects the historical, cultural, social, ideological and political context of the play. In the absence of a dramatic directory, "improturgie" appears not only as a catalyst towards a militant drama – fighting against state imperialism and all forms of fundamentalism – but also as a research laboratory for more novel theatrical forms in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

1 ABSTRACT This thesis describes the theatre reform at the turn of 19th and 20th century in its wider sociocultural concept. It focuses on the reaction of theatre to the modernistic crisis of European culture and society. Modernism is understood here according to its wider thematic and chronological definition. Modernism is based on the conception of machine civilization as it was defined by a Polish sociologist Jerzy Jedlicki. Jedlicki places the rise of modernistic cultural formation into the second half of 18th century which is when a steam engine was invented and it was a time of social turbulence and changes in human spirituality. Another theoretical frame of the thesis is created by utopia phenomenon as it was defined by Jerzy Szacki. Second half of 20th century is considered to be the end of modernism, inasmuch the utopic visions which had been placed on theatre faded away. The main topic of the thesis is Juliusz Osterwa's and Mieczyslaw Limanowski's theatre studio Reduta. It was founded in Warsaw in 1919 and it was to a great extend inspired by Moscow theatre studios of Stanislavsky and by Polish theatre sources (Stanislaw Wyspianski). By studying selected examples, the thesis studies Reduta as a realisation of modernistic utopia when theatre was supposed to carry a special mission in renaissance of...