Editorial: Complicity

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 offer reflections and documentation of creative practices that are reimagining the field. Dermott Daly launches the issue with a provocation, asking how and why we need to diversity curricula in theatre programs. Crestcencia Ortiz-Barnet interrogates her experience (alongside students of color) of the imposter syndrome through an analysis of community building work she has instituted at North Carolina A&T State University. Kaitlin Orlena-Kearns Jaskolski returns to ArtsPraxis to explore the paradoxes of disability inclusion in theatre through four case studies from The Oasis League, an applied inclusive theatre project at Oasis Association, a group home for adults with intellectual disabilities in Cape Town, South Africa. Shuangshuang Cai examines the role of applied theatre as a tool for community development within contemporary China’s urban context, with a specific focus on its capacity to strengthen community identity and social capital. Lemar O. Archer considers how documentary theatre can be used as an arts-based research method for international graduate students to share experiences of language barriers, financial limitations and cultural adjustment difficulties in order to promote awareness, empathy, and institutional reflection. Couched in the politics of a Southern Indiana school district, Luke Foster Hayden explores how Christopher Small’s concept of “musicking” can be used as a methodological framework for critical pedagogy. Nabanita Chakraborty contends that Badal Sircar's 'third theatre' or 'intimate theatre' provides a compelling model for transforming literature classrooms into participatory spaces. Carla Lahey documents the way some evangelical churches provide spaces for children and teens to engage in the arts. Finally, in reviewing Jo Beth Gonzalez’s Temporary Stages III: How High School Theatre Fosters Spiritual Growth and Critical Consciousness, Lauren Gorelov demonstrates how Gonzalez situates theatre pedagogy within a critical spiritual framework that unites students’ inner development