National Drama

This collection of essays from many of the world’s leading drama education practitioners captures the challenges and struggles of teaching and learning through drama with honesty, humour, and vulnerability. Each essay investigates one particular mistake, or series of mistakes, and interrogates how these (mis)adventures changed the author’s future practice and thinking about learning and teaching through drama. Modelled on reflective practice, this book will be an essential, everyday guide to the challenges of drama education.
Edited by Peter Duffy. Reviewed by Chris Hay.

A Journey of Art and Conflict is a deeply personal exploration of David Oddie’s attempts to uncover the potential of the arts as a resource for reconciliation in the wake of conflict and for the creative transformation of conflict itself. It began when Oddie, seeing the fractured world around him, asked himself what he could do to help; that question set him off on travels around the world, including to Palestine, Kosovo, South Africa, India, Northern Ireland, Brazil, and other places. In each location, he met with local people who had suffered from conflict and worked with them to forge artistic networks that have the potential to transform their situation.
By David Oddie. Reviewed by Dr. Pema Clark.