Challenging Compliance: Activating Citizens for Change
Affiliation of Author, Researcher, or Creator
School of the Arts
Other Affiliation Information
NA
Department
Performing Arts
Author(s)
Bethany Nelson
Resource Type
Book Chapter
Publication, Publisher or Distributor
Taylor and Francis, New York
Publication Date
2021
Brief Description
This chapter discusses the role of Applied Theatre as a tool for facilitating the development of active citizens within the troubled and tumultuous reality of the United States in 2020. The U.S. is locked in a cycle of increasing socio-economic and racial inequity that disadvantages a substantial number of its citizens (Chomsky in Polychroniou 2017). Rather than challenging these inequities and building an aware and engaged citizenry, schools reflect and perpetuate them, particularly in under-resourced urban areas (Giroux 2018). Applied Theatre approaches are tools for helping students in the U.S. engage with and challenge existing definitions of citizenship in the public sphere. True citizenship involves agency, students’ understanding of societal dynamics that suppress action, and a drive to work for change. The varied expectations regarding what it means to be a citizen coincide, collude and, sometimes, collide with Applied Theatre approaches utilised in schools and communities. This chapter asks: In this time of upheaval and change, what role(s) should we, as Applied Theatre practitioners, play? Who are we here for, and to what end(s)? Are we a reflection of the dynamics that shape our inequitable society, a mirror of ‘what is?’ Or are we change agents, working with students and communities to re-imagine a more just alternative through the creation of an active citizenry?
Keywords
playmaking/devising, Applied Theatre, citizenship, urban education, theatre for social justice
Preferred Citation Style
Chicago Manual