This study presents the idea that radical theatre for young audiences is necessary to wake up the field and cultivate moral, social and aesthetic values. It does it through a discussion of four essential topics: (a) The essence of theatre for young audiences (its characterisation and emphasis on its distinctiveness); (b) Ecology of theatre; (c)…

This collaborative co-authored article argues that performance is a portal that can connect 'infinite' and 'far' communities, and that portals can invite a sense of world-building through digital connections. For two months, a gold shipping container in Glasgow connected to other portals in Iraq, Rwanda, Mexico City, Palestine and Uganda for…

This essay documents my expansions on a lesson developed in courses that juxtaposed performance and memory studies. Building on a recursive reading of Toni Morrison's literary conceptualisation of rememory, I describe the reiterative nature of memory using two digital performances -- a TikTok meme featuring 50 Cent's 'Candy Shop' and a Reddit…

Sara Baartman (Venus Hottentot) was an African teenager lured to Europe to perform for audiences in 1810; her genitals and brain were posthumously dissected, pickled and museumized. In 2016, 'Venus Hottentot: A Short Play' was staged at The University of MA, Amherst, and the audience participated in free writing at the end of the performance. The…

In digital interactive and immersive performance, the body of the audience member is the locus of both meaning-making (through embodied, sensory operations) and meaning itself (through the affective experience of self as hybrid, open and interconnected). This article draws on André Lepecki's concept of 'will to archive' to argue that the body can…

Through an examination of "In-Common Sites," conducted with young people to investigate their relationship with Mousehold Heath in Norwich, this article considers the possibilities of performance to not UK, only represent a spatially defined urban common but also to enact a commons. It is argued that performance is a generative social…

A dialogue between Taylor, a trans male Turkish-Canadian theatre student and Kathleen, a queer, cis-gendered female Scottish-Canadian theatre researcher considers some questions that queerness and trans identities in the drama classroom invite. Based on their mutual engagement in a virtual drama club in a Toronto high school in the 2020-2021…

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…

Considering "Tenancy," a year-long residency project by Manchester-based performance company Quarantine, this article examines the spatial implications of economic policy and the opportunity for performance to facilitate social practices of knowledge making and exchange that exceed the strategically ordered contexts of the modern city.…

This article focuses on resilience and chronic pain in the context of choreography and performance. Through critically-creatively reflecting on my practice-as-research project, "Ecologies of Pain," I explore practices of resilience that emerge from turning towards and working creatively with chronic pain. I draw from two strands of the…

This article theorises how Akira Takayama with his theatre company Port B facilitates large-scale multi-sited performance works in cities across the globe, which expand the physical architecture of the theatre and utilise digital communications technology. To probe the relation between theatre and the contemporary city, the article interrogates…

This article will provide an overview of how the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) project Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) has attempted to explore the use of interdisciplinary art-based practices for peacebuilding in Rwanda. In particular, we will detail how performance has been used to create a…

On the premise that performances and writing can be staged, and that no staging is ever innocent, we tell two unresolved, wonder-oriented phenomenological stories of Relaxed Performances (RP) that reveal 'affective trouble': the delivery of a 'cripped' fashion show at a university and a church-based 'relaxed' choir performance. We compose these…

Despite the often-crucial roles played by music within theatre-based public health promotion strategies, theoretical explorations regarding music within applied theatre literatures remain largely underdeveloped. This article highlights musicking -- a reconceptualization of music from an object to a participatory act that can profoundly influence…

The annual ethnographic performance "SJS-Who?" is an example of how theatre may survive or even thrive in an educational/institutional environment that seems increasingly indifferent to the arts and humanities. In addition to being a meaningful educational experience for many students, "SJS-Who?" has successfully increased the…