Drama Research Volume 9

Research-based Theatre aims to present research in a way that is compelling and captivating, connecting with viewers on imaginative and intellectual levels at the same time. Research-Based Theatre brings together scholars and practitioners of research-based theater to construct a theoretical analysis of the field and offer critical reflections on how the methodology can now be applied. The book shares twelve examples of contemporary research-based theater scripts and commentaries from an international group of artists and researchers, selected with an eye toward representing different approaches that come from a variety of disciplinary areas.
By George Belliveau and Graham W. Lea. Reviewed by Flavia Domingues D. Avila.

Imagined Theatres collects theoretical dramas written by some of the leading scholars and artists of the contemporary stage. These dialogues, prose poems, and microfictions describe imaginary performance events that explore what might be possible and impossible in the theatre.
Each scenario is mirrored by a brief accompanying reflection, asking what they might mean for our thinking about the theatre. These many possible worlds circle around questions that include:
In what way is writing itself a performance?
How do we understand the relationship between real performances that engender imaginary reflections and imaginary conceptions that form the basis for real theatrical productions?
Are we not always imagining theatres when we read or even when we sit in the theatre, watching whatever event we imagine we are seeing?
Edited by Daniel Sack. Reviewed by Joseph Dunne.

If theatre is a way of seeing, an event onstage but also a fleeting series of moments; not a copy or double but more vitally metamorphosis, transformation, and change, how might we speak to – and of – it? How do we envision and frame a fluid reality that moves faster than we can write?
Arranged over two parts, ‘Figurations’ and ‘Translations’, Essays on Theatre and Change reflects on the animal, history, doubling, translation, and the performative potential of writing itself. Each fictocritical essay weaves between voices, genres and contexts to consider what theatre might be, offering a ‘partial object’ rather than a complete theory. Leaving the page radically open to its reader, Essays on Theatre and Change is a dazzling, multi-lensed account of what it is to think and write on theatre.
By Kélina Gotman. Reviewed by Charlotte Bell.

Disability and Theatre: A Practical Manual for Inclusion in the Arts is a step-by step manual on how to create inclusive theatre, including how and where to find actors, how to publicize productions, run rehearsals, act intricate scenes like fights and battles, work with unions, contracts, and agents, and deal with technical issues. This practical information was born from the author’s 16 years of running the first inclusive theatre company in New York City, and is applicable to any performance level: children’s theatre, community theatre, regional theatre, touring companies, Broadway, and academic theatre. This book features anecdotal case studies that emphasize problem solving, real-world application, and realistic action plans. A comprehensive Companion Website provides additional guidelines and hands-on worksheets.
By Stephanie Barton Farcas. Reviewed by Andy Kempe.

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.