This paper reports on a study that explores how artists might best support very young children's engagement in integrated arts performances. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which artists work with very young children in performing arts spaces. The study was designed to intimately examine a work with and for a very…

Autobiographical theatre usually brings to the forefront personal experiences that have been hidden or silenced, while the autoethnographic approach emphasises their social dimensions. This article looks at "Night Watchers" (an autobiographical/autoethnographic piece) featuring three artists who, using acting, painting, and poetry, tell…

This article considers a pilot research project that examines the successes, failures, and best practice approaches for delivering online performing arts education experiences to young people around Australia. In conversation with 15 teaching artists and 18 youth-based arts organisations nationally, it evaluates the challenges and innovations in…

This article explores the critical potential of theatre practice as research in interdisciplinary environmental contexts. It does this with specific reference to The Performic Cycle, a practice as research methodology that brings environmental adaptation thinking into conversation with vital materialist and critical disability scholarship through…

Neoliberalism as it emerged from the West, has been localised when it entered China along with the global market. In the 2010s, a series of neoliberal policies under the mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation (MEMI) initiative were launched to support an entrepreneurial environment for Chinese theatres. To understand how the state applied…

In this article, a teaching artist shares their understandings about designing a large-scale interactive intermedial arts experience for children aged five to eight years, and articulates findings about the conditions that promote quality experiences of this kind. When designing interactive arts experiences, a tension exists between providing…

The presence of non-disabled artists challenges the possibility of disability aesthetics in arts and disability projects. This study therefore examines the meaning of disability for the aesthetics of their collaborations and artistic practice through in-depth interviews with twelve Belgian non-disabled performing artists. The findings show that…

In 2021, York St John University and Mind the Gap collaborated to validate a Certificate in Higher Education (Cert HE) in the Performing Arts for learning disabled and autistic adults. This article presents context surrounding inclusive education, identifying the histories of ableism within assessment processes. We then discuss how we worked in…

This article explores how sharing and listening to stories linked children and young people, educators, artists, civil society workers, and policymakers as part of a continuum of transitional justice processes in the aftermath of conflict Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) initiative. We argue that sharing stories within a peace education context can…

This article looks at the meaning of solidarity as related to the Egyptian uprising of January 2011. Through participant interviews, field notes, and observations, the author examines the role of grassroots theatre in enabling the aspirations of the revolution to live on amongst its players, and despite more stringent state control over the arts…

This study draws on the experiences of eleven individuals working for six organisations in Northern California to identify ways White supremacist ideals operate in performance-related programmes in correctional facilities. The inquiry examines the experience of teaching artist/facilitators (TAFs) of colour; White TAF's (in)ability to reflect on…

This essay considers what viewing performance as an affective encounter--an embodied experience of sensations and intensities--might mean for applied theatre. Using auto-theory, which joins personal narrative with theories of affect, new materialism and post-humanism, we write an affective encounter that catches up people and objects in relations…

Walking by those living with dementia is often pathologically labelled 'wandering', an act lacking a clear purpose or destination. Walking in this context is not widely understood or valued, except as physical exercise. Drawing on walking performances by other artists and the author's own arts-based research, during which she walked outdoors and…

In this article, I propose that investigation of allies, ally skills, and allyship in disability arts is overdue. I articulate some of ways in which non-arts approaches to allyship need to be adapted to meet the needs of disabled artists, given the aesthetic as well as professional and social dimensions of allyship distinctive to disability arts.…

Despite a diverse and vibrant contemporary artistic scene, East Africa sees less international exposure than other regions on the continent; this article argues that a new approach to understanding the complexities and value of performance in the region is fundamental to developing the sector. East African Soul Train is a pop-up residency, which…