Cirrus@Austlit

Interventionist agendas in applied theatre constantly require scrutiny into the problematic claims of transformation and empowerment. There is a need to examine the power structures that underline any kind of work done with disempowered communities, where applied theatre practitioners are often in positions of 'privilege' and 'authority'. In this paper, I draw together the discussions surrounding these issues, paying attention to the call for a more ethical practice when dealing with representations made in the process of applied theatre work. Importantly, I recognise that these demands can leave facilitators feeling vulnerable, especially when things do not go well. Instead of ignoring them, I propose that 'acts of stammering' - moments of uncertainty - serve as points of reflection for the facilitator. Drawing on an example of a project with disabled people, the notion of 'aesthetic nervousness' is then used as a lens to better understand the act of stammering encountered by the facilitator. (Abstract)

'In this paper, I briefly introduce the participatory drama practice that the Griffith University Applied Theatre team has been engaged in within the context of new arrivals over the last ten years. I then turn to discuss resilience and the importance of hope, belonging and connectedness in the lives of new arrivals. This is followed by a description of a participatory drama program that occurred with a specific group of year 11 and 12 students with refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds during two school terms in 2016. The drama program that took place at one Brisbane high school, in Queensland, Australia, was designed as an intervention to support the young people based on the school's assessment of their particular needs. I then turn to reflect on the program's achievements against the stated goals. To do this I draw on my own observations as well as interviews with the students and one of the teachers. I conclude that the participatory drama program was a valuable and joyful intervention for these young people.' (Abstract)

'It is well established that some types of performance and theatre both document and catalyse social and/or cultural change (Mitchell, Dupuis and Jonas-Simpson 2011; Epskamp 1989; Shank 1982). This idea is so influential that for decades many anthropologists have used the notion of theatre or performance to describe the way whole social and cultural systems work (Schechner 2004; Turner 1982; Goffman 1956). Similarly, certain types of writing document and catalyse individual or personal change processes (Baker 2012, 2017). In other words, writing can be understood as an intervention into subjectivity in the way that performance and theatre are interventions into social systems and cultural practices. Michel Foucault (1997) described this process as self-writing or self-bricolage. This paper focuses on stage writing as an intervention into subjectivity or identity and a catalyst for personal transformation.' (Abstract)

'This article explores the evolution of a verbatim play, 'Seeking Joe Civilian', from its origins as an idea to its execution as a rehearsed performed reading in its first draft form. The play began as a conventional telling of the Anzac story in order to attract funding; it failed to do so. Still in proposal form, the decision was taken to continue with the idea but to adapt it to what was perceived as a shift in public consciousness over the period referred to as the Anzac century. This was a period of massive political investment in the Arts and communities designed to generate stories and events that would celebrate the national identity located within the Anzac story as told from a World War I perspective.' 

'The intention was to diffuse the Anzac story, to relegate it to the past and foreground modern soldiers. But in the performed reading this did not happen. The Anzac story proved resilient; in our imaginations our modern soldiers, as our actors, became universal. The Anzac story embraced our modern soldiers as well. But what the play did expose was an even more significant intervention: the personal opportunism embedded in politically-driven campaigns of commemoration.' (Abstract)

'Verbatim theatre involves interviewing a community of storytellers based on a topic or event, recording these conversations, and using the stories as stimuli to create performance. In 2014, I wrote and performed in a verbatim play titled 'bald heads and blue stars', and triangulated a documentation of this process through a 'Reflective Practitioner Case Study' methodology to research a theory, model and impact of verbatim theatre practice for my PhD. I identified that there was a significant gap in the field of research concerning the impact that involvement in a verbatim theatre process had on a community of participants. To address this gap, my research included a series of anonymous surveys with the interview participants (who I refer to as the community of storytellers) who shared their stories in the creation of 'bald heads and blue stars'. This community of storytellers were fifteen women from across Queensland who have experienced alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that results in varying degrees of hair loss. At three key junctures across their involvement in the verbatim theatre process the community of storytellers were invited to complete a survey about their experience. This article analyses their responses in reference to the broader academic field and suggests that involvement in a verbatim theatre process intervened in the storytellers' self-awareness, enriched their interpersonal communication around the central themes of the performance, and created stronger community connections.'(Abstract)

'There is an increasingly accepted connection between issues surrounding male identity and destructive and anti-social behaviours. These expressions of unhealthy notions of masculinity have been the focus of various initiatives and investigations into contemporary male health and wellbeing. Issues such as alcohol and drug abuse, violence against others, self-harm and suicide have been the subjects of official reports, research projects, social welfare campaigns and even television shows. The theatre, as a site for social intervention, can thus contribute to this increasing focus on, and attempts to shift, outdated and unhealthy understandings of 'what it means to be a man'. 

'This paper examines the interventionist nature of theatre to explore, unpack and attempt to alter perceptions of the contemporary Australian male identity through the fusing of Ethnotheatre, Ethnodrama and Theatre of Tensions. As a result, theatre can intercept long-held, traditional (re)presentations of masculinity in order to reinvent them, thereby offering perceptibly healthier alternatives to masculine ways of being.' (Abstract)

'Tim Winton’s Island Home (2015) carries the sub-title ‘A landscape memoir’, and it will not surprise readers of Winton’s fiction that he handles the elastic form of the memoir with novelistic flair. He eschews conventional chronology, arranging a looser narrative mosaic befitting the mode of peripheral perception he celebrates: the power of 'vision beyond mere glimpsing', as he puts it in his earlier essay bearing the same sub-title, ‘Strange passion: a landscape memoir’ (1999). (Introduction)

'I see her first, through the kitchen window as I fill the kettle. She sits reading at the verandah table and, behind the folds of her navy scarf, I can just make out the skin of her cheek turned toward the sun. I pad silently back to the bedroom and close the door.' (Introduction)