Applied Theatre: Creating Transformative Encounters in the Community

Philip Taylor offers strategies for using theatre to raise awareness, propose alternatives, provide healing, and implement community change.

Library Journal

Taylor (educational theater, NYU) presents theater as a "powerful educative tool" when taken out of the theatrical setting to the audiences for which it is intended. Applied theater is "participatory theatre," requiring audiences to role-play or otherwise interact with the characters in order to engage in the subject fully. Based on the idea that "theatre [can] be harnessed in nontheatrical settings to build stronger communities," applied theater has much in common with other theater movements, such as theater for development, theater in education, and theater therapy, in its emphasis on giving participants ownership of the outcome by soliciting input and interaction. It differs, however, because it does not "insist on a course of action" but rather allows participants to guide the final outcome. Each chapter of the book tackles one aspect of applied theater in its use in different communities, from schools to neighborhoods. All but the last include real-life examples of applied theater projects. Taylor's work is insightful and will be of equal interest to theater, psychology, and social work scholars.-Laura A. Ewald, Murray State Univ. Lib., KY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

PHILIP TAYLOR is Director of New York University's Program in Educational Theatre. His previous publications with Heinemann include Applied Theatre: Creating Transformative Encounters in the Community (2003) and Redcoats and Patriots: Reflective Practice in Drama and Social Studies (1998).