The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Young People

Selina Busby is professor of applied and social theatre at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her research and practice focuses on theatre that invites the possibility of change. She is a researcher who uses participatory and emancipatory research methods with people living in adverse conditions, both in the UK and internationally. Recent publications include Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia (2021). Kelly Freebody is an associate professor in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on drama, applied theatre, social justice, creativity in education, and school-community relationships. Her teaching interests include drama pedagogy and critical perspectives in education. She is co-editor of the Applied Theatre Research Journal, and co-editor of the Routledge Learning Through Theatre series. Charlene Rajendran is an associate professor at the National Institute of Education – Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is a theatre educator, researcher, and dramaturg whose interests include contemporary performance, play-based pedagogy, and arts leadership. She is currently the co-director of the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network.

1. Introduction

Selina Busby, Kelly Freebody and Charlene Rajendran

Part 1: Political Utterances

2. Bodyliness in European applied theatre projects. Reflecting on the importance of inviting the body to the Workshop’s Room

Gabriel Vivas-Martínez

Reflection 1: On the Importance of Big Umbrellas: Applied Theatre as a Hopeful Practice in Precarious Times

Kathleen Gallagher.

3. Becoming Giants: Towards Oceania Through Mastery of Bodily Skills and Techniques.

Peilin Liang

4. Navigating Adultism in Critical Youth Theatre Practice

Matthew Elliot

Reflection 2: We are Still Here and Why We Do Theatre

Mardin Mahmoudpour

5. The Manipulation of Mowgli: Performing Youth, Deconstructing Racialization, and Tracing Imperialism in The Jungle Book.

Asif Majid

6. Shakespeare Youth Performance Festivals as Spaces for Postcolonial Restorying

Jennifer Kitchen

Reflection 3: What defines the dramaturgy of Young Peoples Theatre (YPYT) And who defines it?

Janet Pillai

7. Performing Violence, devising Futures? Performance with and by Young People in Rwanda and Uganda

Hope Azeda, Lillian Mbabazi, and Bobby Smith

Reflection 4: Theatre to Raise a Village.

Patrick Alesana, Irene Folau, Agnes Milford, et al.

8. Scotland’s Youth Theatre and Drama Sector.

William D Barlow and Douglas Irvine

Part 2: Critical Positioning

9. Arena Theatre Company: Making theatre with young people as a methodology for making theatre for young people

Meg Upton, Richard Sallis, Christian Leavesley, et al.

Reflection 5: Theatre Makes Me Think Again

Kirubael Alebachew.

10. ‘Home Grown' Productions for Their Own Young People: Researching Community Theatre Groups in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

Emma Durden

11. Re-thinking "theatre" during social distancing: How Cosmic Kids Yoga got us through a pandemic.

Dani Snyder-Young, with Des Bennett, Anna Birnholz et al.

12. Theatre of Hope: PaGaSa in the Praxis of Youth Advocates Through Theatre Arts (YATTA)

Dessa Quesada Palm and Jazmin Llana

13. Trials and Tribulations: Creating Theatre for Young Audiences With or Without Youth

David Montgomery, Gina L. Grandi, Teresa A. Fisher et al.

Reflection 6: At the Water’s Edge: Theatre as a Space for Reflection

Theo Chen.

14. Between Past and Future: Edward Bond and he Representation of Adolescent Crisis

Martin Heaney

15. The Imagined Child Onstage: Theatrical Depictions of Parental Grief during Transition for Youth on the Autism Spectrum

Molly Mattaini

Reflection 7: Theatre: the humanizing social metaphor.

Sanjoy Ganguly

16. Access to Theatre for Young People in India: Thespo’s Journey through Change and Challenge from 1999 to 2021

Srishti Ray and Srividya

17. Verbatim Formula: Affect, Agency and Participatory Performance with Care-experienced Young People

Maggie Inchley and Sylvan Baker

Part 3: Pedagogic Frames

18. "Writing What Matters to me": Voicing Latinx Youth Concerns Through Theatre Scriptwriting

Claudia G. Pineda, Rossella Santagata, and Joseph Jenkins.

19. Let Them Speak: Devised Theatre as a Culturally Responsive Methodology for Secondary Students

Jonathan P. Jones.

Reflection 8: A Chain of Creative Bombs

Tom Anderson

20. The Artistic and Pedagogical Experience at The Casa Do Teatro, Brazil

Lígia Cortez.

21. Botanical Drama- Theatre for Young People

Justine Marie Bruyère.

Reflection 9: "But damn it, without the illusion, what would man have been then?"

Stig A. Eriksson.

22. To the syllabus and Beyond: Yong People learning Through Theatre Making in Australian Schools.

Katy Walsh and Christine Hatton

23. A Dialogue Across the Cricle: Creating 'Authentic' Theatre for Achievement Standards in New Zealand Secondary Schools

Jane Isobel Luton and Holly Charlotte Luton.

Reflection 10: What’s it like your youth theatre like?

Ella Sutton and Kate Sutton

24. Artist and teacher supported extra-curricular theatre in secondary schools: Exploring the benefits of a ‘betwixt and between’ youth theatre form

Jennifer Penton, Julie Dunn, Linda Hassall, et al.

25. Making Space: a community-engaged youth theatre practice grounded in care.

Alysha Herrmann, Claire Glenn and Sarah Peters.

Part 4: Applying Performance

Reflection 11: Dancing towards Dreams

Helen Nicholson

26. ‘What does transformative justice look like?’: Clean Break Theatre Company and the Young Artists Development Programme

Sarah Bartley

27. SExT: Sex Education by Theatre — Empowering youth from a community where sex is culturally taboo to take centre stage

Shira B. Taylor

Reflection 12: Theatre for Learning Expression and Empathy from the Margins

Kisan Salbul and Sana Shaikh

28. ‘I do the story I tell’ – Theatre-making for children living on the margins in Singapore.

Jennifer Wong

29. United we stand? Devised Theatre for Social Change with youth in a tumultuous America

Elizabeth Brendel Horn and Tonya Hays

30. All the Stage is a World: Prospects for Virtual Reality Theatre with Young People

Paul Rae and Jennifer Beckett

Reflection 13: A Life Changing Journey in the Karoo, South Africa

Adrian Tony

31. Young People’s Theatre in Thailand: A Performance Ecology Approach

Pornrat Damrhung

32. Imagining Alternative Futures for Marginalised Communities in Taiwan Through Devised Theatre with University Students in Educational and Community Settings

Wan-Jung Wang

Reflection 14: Moments of Truth

John O’Toole

Reflection 15: An Open Letter to Young Theatre Practitioners

Syed Jamil Ahmed