Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia

Shortlisted for the 2022 TaPRA David Bradby Monograph Prize

Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia offers a critical consideration of long-term applied and participatory theatre projects. In doing so, it provides a timely analysis of concepts that inform applied theatre and outlines a new way of thinking about making theatre with differing groups of participants.

The book problematizes key concepts including safe spaces, voice, ethical practice and resistance. Selina Busby analyses applied theatre projects in India, the USA and the UK, in youth theatres, homeless shelters, prisons and with those living in informal housing settlements to consider her key question: what might a pedagogy of utopia look like? Drawing on 20 years of practice in a range of contexts, this book focuses on long-term interventions that raise troubling questions about applied theatre, cultural colonialism and power, while arguing that community or participatory theatre conversely has the potential to generate a resilient sense of optimism, or what Busby terms, a 'nebulous utopia'.

Author: Selina Busby
Publisher: Methuen Drama
Published: 10/06/2022
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781350232815

About the Author
Busby, Selina: - Selina Busby is an academic and theatre practitioner who makes performances with community groups. She is a Principal Lecturer in Applied Theatre at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, where she teaches on both the BA (Hons.) Drama, Applied Theatre and Education and the MA Applied Theatre courses. Her research and practice focuses on theatre that invites the possibility of change, both in contemporary plays and in participatory performance. As a practitioner, she works in prison settings, youth theatres, and with young people living in adverse conditions both in the UK and internationally.