http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75083 2026-04-11T04:29:18Z 2026-04-11T04:29:18Z Jones, Jonathan P. http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75130 2025-04-30T20:00:29Z 2024-06-01T00:00:00Z

Title: ArtsPraxis: Volume 11, Issue 1 Authors: Jones, Jonathan P. Abstract: In this issue, our contributors document and reflect on innovative educational theatre practices for youth theatre and theatre for young audiences, in higher education, and research methodologies. Sharon Counts advocates for civic and community engagement programs as one prominent and effective method to foster synergy between communities and arts organizations. Maddie N. Zdeblick and Noëlle GM Gibbs investigate their dynamic use of creative drama to explore social justice in youth theatre. James Woodhams analyzes Back Alley Puppetry Parade performances during the COVID-19 pandemic to document pivot-spaces and kinesthetic spectatorship. David Overton shares a heuristic and phenomenological self-study about the Long Island Classics Stage Company. On the higher education front, Ellen Redling proposes methods for enhancing critical thinking skills and ethical responsibility as revealed through two case studies. Dermot Daly uses a similar methodical approach, examining social justice and fringe theatre in higher education. Finally, Nicholas Waxman deconstructs the rise of theatrical inquiry as a research methodology in arts education, and Brenda Burton presents a literature review on the application of teaching and deep learning strategies for the drama-based instruction (DBI) practitioner and researcher.

2024-06-01T00:00:00Z Redling, Ellen http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75118 2025-04-30T18:23:01Z 2024-06-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills and Ethical Responsibility in UK Higher Education in Times of “Polycrisis”: Two Case Studies from Drama and Theatre Arts Authors: Redling, Ellen Abstract: In this uncertain age of “polycrisis,” where various types of crises—such as climate change, the refugee crisis, financial instability, wars—intersect in such intricate ways “that the overall impact far exceeds the sum of each part” (World Economic Forum, Global Risks Report, 2023), it is more important than ever to help students look beyond the university walls and address such complexities. This article argues that combining the enhancement of critical thinking skills, which are often linked to rational distancing, with the promotion of ethical responsibility through an affective closeness towards a topic at hand, is a crucial pedagogical approach in UK higher education today. This is because we live in an age which requires both critical analysis amidst, for instance, the rise of ‘fake news,’ and affective closeness due to, for example, the emotional numbness often caused by the amount and complexity of the crises we are confronted with today. Adding an affective dimension to a more rational approach furthermore has the benefit of encouraging deep learning as opposed to so-called “surface learning” (Race, 2007, p. 36), as an affective encounter/event can bring with it greater attention (Tomkins, 1995) and a longer-term consolidation in one’s (bodily) memory (Shouse, 2005). More sustainable and longer-term thinking in the face of complex and lasting crises is crucial particularly in light of largely short-term, election-focused political (in)action and fast-changing news cycles. To illustrate such an interlinking of distancing strategies with pedagogies of closeness, two particular case studies from Drama and Theatre Arts will be analysed because these can effectively highlight the usefulness of this two-pronged approach through their own combination of artistic nearness to ‘real-life’ socio-political issues as well as artistic distancing.

2024-06-01T00:00:00Z Jones, Jonathan P. http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75113 2025-04-30T18:21:33Z 2024-06-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Editorial: E Pluribus Unum Authors: Jones, Jonathan P. Abstract: In this editorial, the editor reflects on the current political climate in the US and its impact on theatre education. The editor then introduces this issue, in which our contributors document and reflect on innovative educational theatre practices for youth theatre and theatre for young audiences, in higher education, and research methodologies. Sharon Counts advocates for civic and community engagement programs as one prominent and effective method to foster synergy between communities and arts organizations. Maddie N. Zdeblick and Noëlle GM Gibbs investigate their dynamic use of creative drama to explore social justice in youth theatre. James Woodhams analyzes Back Alley Puppetry Parade performances during the COVID-19 pandemic to document pivot-spaces and kinesthetic spectatorship. David Overton shares a heuristic and phenomenological self-study about the Long Island Classics Stage Company. On the higher education front, Ellen Redling proposes methods for enhancing critical thinking skills and ethical responsibility as revealed through two case studies. Dermot Daly uses a similar methodical approach, examining social justice and fringe theatre in higher education. Finally, Nicholas Waxman deconstructs the rise of theatrical inquiry as a research methodology in arts education, and Brenda Burton presents a literature review on the application of teaching and deep learning strategies for the drama-based instruction (DBI) practitioner and researcher.

2024-06-01T00:00:00Z Counts, Sharon http://hdl.handle.net/2451/75114 2025-04-30T18:05:47Z 2024-06-01T00:00:00Z

Title: A Collective Vision for a Future in the Arts through Community and Civic Engagement Programs Authors: Counts, Sharon Abstract: The arts have the power to effect change and animate democracy by demonstrating the public value of creative work that contributes to a larger social good. In this accelerated moment of radical change, the arts are being more consciously used as a way to engage communities around achieving civic goals and to create positive connections. A major tension in the field right now revolves around how to galvanize our collective resources and knowledge toward building a more sustainable future for theater at large. This article centers the use of civic and community engagement programs as one prominent and effective method that can foster synergy with communities that arts organizations and theaters engage and seek to engage. Many theaters are using community engagement programs to ignite community conversations and address past inequities. A case study highlights how one regional theater, Mid-Sized City Theater (MCT), a pseudonym, used community and civic engagement programs to promote reimagining their organization as a civic institution and to rebuild relationships with their community. The pursuit to improve relationships between theaters and communities using community engagement programs is one way this sector is working to address historical inequities for cultural workers, artists, and participants in the arts.

2024-06-01T00:00:00Z