Browsing by Subject "Applied theatre"
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Item Cultivating community : socially responsible pedagogy in the devising process(2015-05) Thomas, Emily Aguilar; Schroeder-Arce, Roxanne; Dawson, Kathryn; González-López, GloriaAccording to the U.S. Department of Justice, statistics show that young people are experiencing sexual violence at the hands of adults and often do not tell anyone about their experiences ("Reporting of Sexual Violence Incidents"). Weaving research and practice in sexual violence and Applied Theatre, this case study explores the process of building community among participants while learning through and about these key content areas. Through a devising process that worked toward creating an original Applied Theatre program for young audiences, the researcher interrogates how enacting socially responsible pedagogy informed the process and nurtured a learning community. Enacting a critically-engaged pedagogy, this document invites artists, practitioners and pedagogues to consider how a feminist pedagogy might shape a socially-engaged art-making process and incite participants to take constructive action in their communities.Item Emergent strategy in applied theatre with youth : traversing fear and creating justice(2020-06-29) Hillis, Faith Alyce; Alrutz, MeganHaving conversations about gender and racial justice and actively engaging in performance-based change work can be complex and difficult. As a facilitator of performance work focused on social justice, I am tasked with constantly learning about and reflecting on my own complicated relationships to race, gender, injustice and its many manifestations. While I have the privilege to work with young people as they journey through their own process of discovery and exploration, the process of simultaneously guiding others and the self to explore gender and racial justice through theatre, creates experiences of fear, uncertainty, and deep questioning in my work. Therefore, with this study, I explore how adrienne maree brown’s theories on sustainable activism and social justice practices offer pathways towards acknowledging, questioning and moving through moments of fear in applied theatre. Borrowing from adrienne maree brown’s writing on sustainable activism in Emergent Strategy, I look at two of her core concepts in relation to my own work with young people in the Performing Justice Project: 1. valuing small scale growth and change (fractals) 2. honoring nonlinear growth and transformation, I apply and then analyze how a focus on small scale growth and change and nonlinear growth and transformation shape my own ability to address moments of fear and move toward gender and racial justice with young participants. Using reflective practitioner research, this MFA thesis examines how the artist-facilitator might acknowledge and recognize moments where fear arises to use emergent strategies in performance-based work to engage the body in moving past fear in order to envision and perform justice.Item The evidence-based drama practitioner : the design and implementation of a drama program for very young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their parents(2012-05) Ulrich, Christina Ann; Lazarus, Joan; Dawson, Kathryn M.; Falcomata, Terry S.This thesis explores the applications of a drama-based intervention program for very young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their parents. Drama-based pedagogy and practice is merged with behavioral principles from the world of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to create an interdisciplinary program tailored specifically for the unique learning needs of children with ASD. This document offers a comprehensive overview of the history of diagnosis and treatment of ASD and the many factors that can influence relationships between children with ASD and their parents. A drama-based intervention program was designed specifically to address the communication and social skill deficits in children with ASD. In addition, the drama-based intervention program encouraged parents to use responsive teaching strategies to enhance and extend creative play with their child. The document concludes with recommendations for essential components of a drama-based intervention program for very young children with ASD and their parents.Item Finding your voice : a collaborative, dialogic ethnographic playmaking process offering middle school girls a space to consider the multifaceted views of leadership(2010-05) Fisher, Ruth Meryl; Alrutz, Megan; Dawson, Kathryn; Hashagen, AmandaThis thesis examines the transformative potential of applied theatre, specifically through a study of the playmaking process, and the embodiment and performance of stories, as a tool for middle school girls to articulate ideas about and personalize the notion of leadership. This study documents the theory and practitioners who informed my work in the creation and implementation of an applied theatre program piloted in the fall of 2009. Through a process of qualitative, reflective practitioner research, I examined the participants’ perceptions of, and relationship to, leadership throughout the project, while simultaneously analyzing my own changing perceptions of what it means to lead and facilitate an applied theatre process and performance. The resulting discussion offers a need for a balance between the process and the product in applied theatre, and most importantly the need for practitioners to continuously reexamine their intentions and practices throughout an applied theatre project.Item “The ghosts of Waller Creek” : an exploration of the use of applied theatre and site-specific performance as methods for public participation in a city planning process(2011-08) Dahlenburg, Michelle Hope; Alrutz, Megan; Dawson, Kathryn; Hoare, LynnIn this thesis, I explore applied theatre and site-specific performance workshops as methods for public participation in city planning. “The Ghosts of Waller Creek” program worked to foster interest in and facilitate dialogue around the redevelopment of an abandoned urban creek area in Austin, TX. I explore three guiding questions: How does an applied theatre practitioner foster collaboration with non-theatre artists on a creative project that achieves common goals? How can applied theatre and site-specific performance workshops and events foster place attachment and engage citizens in city planning? How does an applied theatre practitioner translate participatory, applied theatre workshops into an artifact that is useful to city planners? Using reflective practitioner research processes and qualitative coding methods, I examine these questions through an analysis of surveys, interviews, performances, discussions, field notes, and observations. I first explore the role that goals, communication, and reflection played in my partnership with an urban designer. I then use place attachment theory to examine how the workshops and events shifted participants’ interest in, and engagement with, Waller Creek and city planning. Next, I investigate how performative artifacts such as audio maps and interactive performances can communicate participants’ opinions about Waller Creek to city planners and to the general public. Finally I discuss how the project situates in the field of arts-based civic dialogue and address guidelines for future projects. This thesis invites applied theatre practitioners to consider how their work can contribute to arts-based civic dialogue in their own communities.Item The Mart Theatre Project : exploring identity in a community-based applied theatre project with young people(2012-05) McNamee, Anne Marcelline; Alrutz, Megan; Gilbert, Dorie; Hoare, LynnThis thesis details the theoretical and practical implications of utilizing applied theatre as a tool for the exploration of youth identity and relationship to community. Drawing on traditions of ethnography and reflective practitioner research, this document explores the roles of identity and identity-based inequities as they relate to Mart Theatre Project, an applied theatre project aimed at engaging students in Mart, Texas in a larger community development initiative taking place in their town. The document comprises critical analyses of the roles of student identity, facilitator identity, and community identity as they pertain to a community-based applied theatre process and product. The resulting discussion argues for a continual awareness that that the applied theatre process is impacting and impacted by the identities of the facilitator and the participants.Item Our stories heal -- mind, body and soul : pivoting to a healing-centered engagement in an applied theatre residency(2022-07-29) Manning, Courtney Nicole; Dawson, Kathryn; Alrutz, MeganProfessor, author, and youth development activist Shawn Ginwright proposes the importance of healing-centered engagement (HCE) for youth in urban communities and their facilitators. His scholarship invites readers to gain a unique perspective on how as youth development professionals engage and interact with young people to bring justice and support interactions that might be healing and restorative. Ginwright’s 2022 Book Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves argues how facilitators in social justice work with youth might move toward (HCE) from four pivots: awareness, connection, vision, and presence. This MFA thesis is a qualitative case study of a teaching artist facilitation experience during aa 9-week applied theatre residency at a group home facility in central, Texas. The researcher uses reflective practitioner and autoethnographic analysis to examine coded data representing how she pivoted (in relation to all four pivots) as a facilitator throughout the entire project, Our Stories Heal.Item Our stories of L.A.: youth constructing counter-narratives through devised performance(2015-05) Nevels, Megan Anne; Alrutz, Megan; Anderson, Charles; Lazarus, JoanIn movies, television, and music, South Central Los Angeles is portrayed as a place made up of gang violence, poverty, and failure. Young people of color every day construct their identities based on the messages they receive and through their own lived experiences. Media perpetuates specific stereotypes that inform people’s understanding of South Central, but youth voices are rarely heard. This thesis explores how autobiographical devising as counter-storytelling can provide a space for young people to disrupt stereotypes. Through playbuilding as a qualitative research method, the author examines how autobiographical devising can be used to build a critical counter-storytelling community among young people, while providing a space to share their stories with each other, with their communities, and with outsiders. The document examines three devising activities as sites for disruption of stereotypes and the possibilities of public performance as a call to action. The study finds that through an interaction with dominant narratives and the consequent sharing of counter-narratives, or the stories from the margins, the youth participants pushed against problematic stereotypes through the simultaneous embodiment and interrogation of particular stereotypes, the sharing of acts of kindness, the creation of frozen and spoken images that aim to place youth perspectives into the dominant narrative, and the staging of their lives and ideas for an audience. The document concludes with a discussion of the future possibilities of the work in research and practice, as well as a discussion of what an applied counter-storytelling theatre model can provide practitioners within the fields of Applied Theatre and Critical Race Theory.Item Performing liminal citizenship(2009-05) Skeiker, Fadi; Jones, Omi Osun Joni L., 1955-This study examines traditional and alternative citizenship models such as legal, flexible, global and cultural citizenship. These types of citizenship lay the foundation for the understanding of 'liminal citizenship.' This study identifies international students as liminal citizens and gauges the role of theatre in encouraging them to be civically engaged by creating a model for using applied theatre to 1) make international students aware of the possibilities of inclusion within their host community; and 2) empower them to become active members in it.Item Queer pedagogy : performing outside the lines(2014-12) Williams, Sidney Monroe; Schroeder-Arce, RoxanneThis qualitative study reflects on my experiences as a queer pedagogue developing a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered/Transsexual, Questioning/Queer, and Ally (LGBTQA) youth theatre ensemble, Outside the Lines. Through the analysis of my pedagogy and the pedagogy of three practitioners affiliated with the Pride Youth Theatre Alliance, I explore how my queer culture, language, expression and politics influence my Applied Drama & Theatre practice within educational and community spaces. It is hoped that by inviting other practitioners and allies into my process this document will generate constructive dialogue around queer pedagogy and its fluid performance. Furthermore, this document aims to serve as a reference for future practitioners that work with queer youth and in queer spaces.Item (Re)building grandmother's house: the work of queer youth theatre facilitators, their goals, methods, and practice(2016-05) Blake, Samuel Nelson Williamson; Bonin-Rodriguez, Paul; Alrutz, Megan; Hogan, KristenThis qualitative study explores the work queer youth theatre facilitators through an assessment of the goals they hold for their work, the methods they employ, and the practice that results. Beginning with the premise that queer youth theatre (QYT) is an applied theatre practice which seeks to empower queer youth by engaging them in performance, this study investigates the role of adult facilitators in this work. Through conducting and analyzing a qualitative survey of thirteen QYT facilitators and interviews of a further four facilitators, I identify four foundational goals and five common methods QYT facilitators employ in their work. I then consider these goals and methods through an example of practice by engaging in a descriptive analysis of a QYT performance. Throughout this thesis, I employ theories from performance and queer studies, applied theatre, and critical pedagogy as a frame for my assessment of QYT facilitators’ work. This helps situate the work of QYT within and between these disciplines demonstrating how QYT is informed, and thus informs, understandings of all three. Using José Muñoz’s theorization of queer performatives as potential sites of utopian imminence, I argue that QYT provides queer youth with the space and tools of performance through which they imagine futures for themselves and by enacting those futures create them in the present.Item Resisting slactorvism : toward theatrical activism in service of organizing beyond the stage(2021-05-03) Joaquin, Anna Michaela Rogelio; Bonin-Rodriguez, PaulWhile theatre practitioners often intend to create art in service of social change, academic theatre and performance studies programs do not adequately prepare artists to do so. Despite their interdisciplinary nature and bridging of theory and practice, these programs often neglect the opportunity to ground theatrical training in theories of social change (Dolan 53). As a result, many professional artists are poised to make work with activist aims detached from the political analysis necessary to responsibly and effectively work toward concrete goals. This thesis puts social change studies and performance studies in conversation with each other, drawing on theories of organizing, artistic activism, and privileged spectatorship. I first frame organizing as the most effective theory of social change—a tactic I believe to have strong potential for collaboration with theatrical events. Then, I examine strengths and limitations of theatre as artistic activism, naming The Center for Artistic Activism’s concept of AEffect as a framework for analyzing impact (Duncombe and Lambert 5). I also introduce applied theatre scholar Dani Snyder-Young’s concept of privileged spectatorship as what theatre is up against (100). These theories inform my methodology for assessing impact of two case studies: Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s 2018-2019 production of La Ruta by Isaac Gómez and Gathering Ground Theatre and Tenants Speak Up! Theatre’s 2020 production of A Tale of Two Citizens: A People’s Struggle with Housing in the Capital City. Through a critical discourse analysis of production materials and audience impact surveys, this thesis presents a generative call for a more active assessment of insularity, intentions, and impacts of contemporary theatre pursuing social change, as well as the necessity of resisting slactorvism by ensuring theatrical activism serves organizing beyond the stage.Item Storied moments : foregrounding community cultural wealth through digital storytelling(2018-05-04) Flagler, Moriah; Alrutz, MeganSchools have historically been sites of acculturation, highly influenced by political issues. Concepts such as “subtractive schooling,” explain that schools that de-value young immigrants’ perspectives, strip them of their social and cultural resources and make them especially prone to academic failure. Building on the scholarship and research surrounding critical race theory and applied theatre, this qualitative MFA thesis examines how community cultural wealth was foregrounded in storied moments – planned and unplanned – when digital storytelling as an applied theatre practice was used with the aim of disrupting subtractive schooling. This study took place in a sixth-grade Spanish for Spanish Speakers class over a three-week residency and explores and analyzes how concepts of vulnerability, authentic caring, and communities of practice played out in the facilitator’s attempts to foreground community cultural wealth in the classroom. Based on the data collected, this document posits that employing digital storytelling as an applied theatre practice can counter subtractive schooling by making space and time for spontaneous and storied moments. Finally, this document discusses tensions that came up during the residency and invites practitioners to consider how they might bring personal story (dichos, cuentos, and testimonios) into the language classroom to center their students’ ways of knowing and lived experiences. This study hopes to contribute to the greater systemic change needed to create schooling experiences that build on the knowledges Latinx students bring with them into the classroom.Item Stories from the homefront : digital storytelling with National Guard youth(2014-05) Greene, Megan Marie; Alrutz, MeganSince the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism in 2001, the United States has relied heavily on volunteer National Guard troops to protect our country. Thousands of youth have been affected by deployment, yet we rarely hear their stories. This thesis explores how digital storytelling, as an applied theatre practice, can help increase youth visibility and voice in the Army National Guard community. Through qualitative research methods of narrative thematic analysis and thematic coding methods, the author examines how digital storytelling can be used to build community among Army National Guard youth, as well as provide an agentive space for youth to name their experiences and perspectives while self-advocating for their needs and desires. Their digital stories became a site for youth to play with the complexity of naming their experiences, as well as a way to increase their visibility within military spaces. The document concludes with a discussion of how digital storytelling and applied theatre functions within National Guard youth communities, the limitations of the research and model, as well as a discussion of sustainability for applied theatre programs in this community.Item The rhyme in resistance : youth criticality and identity development in courageous cadence(2022-05-04) Games, Jasmine; Alrutz, Megan; Davies, Florence; Hillis, FaithFacilitators in applied theatre and spoken word programming can be more intentional in crafting critically engaged instruction to better serve youth of color, especially Black youth. The aim of this study is to examine how practices from Black literary societies can change applied theatre and spoken word programming to better engage youth of color. This document details my personal aims in crafting a spoken word poetry applied theatre program for youth of color, examines critical consciousness in applied theatre, and historizes the work of Black literary societies. Gholdy Muhammad’s Historically Responsive Literacy (HRL) Framework is utilized as a lens to explore the ways Courageous Cadence, a youth spoken word action-residency, critically engages youth participants in identity development and criticality. By examining the youth’s writing and dialogic responses, as well as my own experience as a facilitator of Courageous Candance, I identify the ways youth perceive themselves, see the world, and desire change. I conclude that identity development was much more prevalent in the youths’ writing and dialogue than criticality.Item Theatre and citizenship : playbuilding with English language learner youth(2012-05) Coleman, Sarah Howe; Parédez, Deborah, 1970-; Dawson, Kathryn; Cawthon, StephanieAs the number of non-native English speakers in US schools continues to rise, there is growing need to find a way to teach English while still engaging with students’ fluid identities around citizenship and national identity. This MFA thesis document explores the impact of an autobiographical playbuilding project with refugee and immigrant youth. The mixed-methods study uses a quantitative performance assessment scale and grounded theory analysis of playscript and performance to examine how students’ definition and understanding of citizenship is activated through the pedagogy and practice of theatre. Throughout, this document argues that arts-based research practices can support both qualitative and quantitative research goals. However the findings suggest that qualitative research offers a more complex understanding of potential program impacts. The document concludes with a discussion of the tensions between research and practice when applied theatre is facilitated in an educational context.Item A transformative classroom experience : exploring campus mental health through theatre for dialogue(2015-05) Snyder, Spring Dawnaleaf; Dawson, Kathryn; Hoare, Lynn; Redd, KathrynThis MFA thesis document investigates the experience of participants in a Theatre For Dialogue: Exploring Perceptions of Mental Health course. During the fall of 2014, a small group of undergraduate and graduate students used the Voices Against Violence Theatre For Dialogue methodology to explore issues of student mental health at The University of Texas at Austin. Working from a feminist pedagogical framework, this qualitative study uses narrative thematic analysis to examine how key aspects of the semester-long course supported transformative learning and a shift in identity for each of the course participants. This document concludes with a discussion of limitations and recommendations for employing the Theatre For Dialogue methodology in university and community-based settings.Item We make the path by walking : performative pedagogy in a recovery high school(2019-05-08) Proietti, Katherine E.; Dawson, KathrynRecovery high schools started emerging in the United States as a continuing source of care for young people in recovery from substance use at the height of the war on drugs in the 1980s. Research shows that recovery from addiction is not only a restoration of healthy social networks but also a reconnection to the physical body. This MFA thesis tracks a process of embodied performance (drama-based activities) to explore critical moments on the recovery journey. Through qualitative research methods of thematic analysis and a thematic coding process, the author examines how an embodied performative pedagogy can support conditions for belonging among youth in a recovery high school, as well as how multimodal semiotic symbol systems and meaning-making provide possibilities for youth to affect how they name the world. The document concludes with a discussion of the research findings, the limitations of the research, as well as recommendations for applied drama/theatre programs in recovery high schools