Editorial: Get Woke

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. Joe Salvatore interrogates a methodology for verbatim performance, a form which asks an audience to critically engage with data from interviews and media artifacts via a presentational acting style that can include portraying across identity. Scott Welsh, Elnaz Sheshgelani, and Mary-Rose McLaren describes a ten-year exploration of the self and social experience which fused together two disparate theatrical forms, Persian Dramatic Storytelling and Real Fiction, to create an intercultural hybrid performance medium. Christine V. Skorupa advocates for expanding access for neurodiverse audiences, proposing a Universal Design for Theatregoing based upon the principles of Universal Design for Learning. David Allen and Agata Handley mine unpublished documentary evidence from Dorothy Heathcote’s archive in which she created a space for “response-ability” through a series of “focussed encounters with 'otherness’.” Victoria Isotti proposes methods for using creative drama in support of social-emotional learning for young children. Finally, Alex Ates deconstructs three collaborations with professional playwrights who developed new works for young people in order to overcome the discontinuities between plays for the professional stage and the artistic needs of diverse, school-based theatre production.