Student: Marlon Jiménez Oviedo
Graduation date: May 2016
Type: Area of Interest (double major)
Date approved: November 2013
Summary
“Perhaps the only certainty is that our environment has been, is and always will be changing… The ‘unfinished’ and uncertain nature of science arguably shares some resonance with the ideally ‘unfinished’ and uncertain nature of performance – performance that leaves room for spectators’ engagement and in doing so acknowledges multiple actants.”(Heddon and Mackey 2012)
‘Applied theatre is a broad umbrella term, developed in the 1990s to describe a wide range of participatory, non-traditional theatre practices… usually conducted in spaces not designed for theatre, with and for populations that would not typically constitute mainstream audiences’ (Jackson et al. 2013). The term applied theatre is a term created and mainly discussed by the English-speaking world. Nevertheless, I attempt to investigate applied theatre in the Americas and its use in environmental justice research and activism, for the term encompasses theatrical practices also present in many Latin American countries. Applied theatre connects with environmental justice because it can bring distant and complex issues to arenas where stakeholders can research and present environmental problems that sometimes seem elusive. In fact, Philip Taylor describes applied theatre as full of ‘rich possibilities… for a range of communities as they grapple with issues related to identity; social change; human development; and healing’ (Taylor 2003). As Theresa May discusses in Greening the Threatre:
The ecological implications of embodied representation raise, for example, new insights about the ways the body functions as a medium between material and metaphoric worlds, the ways audiences influence performance, the permeability of self, other, and the environment. With the body as the central meaning-making conduit of performance, ecocriticism applied to theatre must examine how bodies bear the markings of environmental policy. (May 2005)
Both environmental justice and applied theatre bring direct attention to the daily material and cultural consequences of environmental problems on people’s livelihoods, especially the livelihoods of marginalized communities. As posited by May, theatre practices utilize the body as a meaning-making conduit and as bearer of environmental policy. This creates potential for using theatre as a research methodology where people can explore and present different material and metaphorical understandings of environmental problems. In this sense, applied theatre provides an alternative research method where natural and social scientists can learn from communities, and vice versa. Applied theatre might provide tools for the dissemination of scientific knowledge and establishing cooperative relationships. These tools might be helpful when dealing with tension between different stakeholders, who might have varied values and interests. Foreman suggests that the challenge that environmental justice programs have, when attempting to structure cohesive and informed action plans, is due to the fact that
the democratizing forces of community activism value rapid response, inclusion, empowerment and a systemic socio-economic analysis of injustice, and often agitate for direct reparations, while the rationalizing approach of science, economics, engineering and public policy emphasizes a much slower… process of observation, simulation, analysis and thoroughly vetted review. (Foreman 1998)
Applied theater’s inherent methods of experiential learning through fictional events have brought education as a fundamental part of applied theatre’s contemporary discourse. Environmental education has not been very successful at educating for change for it tends to only provide definitions of what the “environment” is and of the big global problems we are facing. Macdonald argues that ‘It is this belief that we [theatre practitioners/educators] are necessary, that we can offer something which is, by definition, irreplaceable, that creates the crisis of engagement…If we could see that we are not necessary, then we might be able to form more useful human and political relations based on genuine dialogue’ (Balfour 2005). Applied theatre often attempts to surpass the teacher/student binary by proposing multi-perspective and experiential ways of learning, in a way that the production and proliferation of scientific and other types of knowledge become useful to both the educator and the educated.
One possible situated context for my area of interest is John Sullivan’s research, using Theatre of the Oppressed (which originated in Brazil), and its tangible impact in the south of Texas. ‘It is not the place of the theatre to show the correct path, but only to offer the means by which all paths may be examined’ (Boal 1985). Hence Theatre of the Oppressed provides opportunities for oppressed individuals who usually do not get to express their views and effect change in their lives. It can also be used to inform different institutions about the primordial needs and desires of disadvantaged communities. John Sullivan (Director of Public Forums & Toxics Assistance, of the Center in Environmental Toxicology) describes his used of Theatre of the Oppressed in his research with a community where ‘ultimately the group improvises scenes that show clearly how environmental risk and public policy resonate in their daily life. These scenes and many of the ‘tox and risk’ images created in the workshop are later performed for the community during the production phase of the project’ (Sullivan 2006). Another possible situated context could be a focus of Theatre of the Oppressed and its attempt to influence politics even though ‘Few theatre projects actively attempt to intervene in discussions of policy with the powerful’ (Snyder-Young 2013). I would investigate projects that simulate Boal’s legislative theatre (in Brazil), and try to engage with political entities that possess significant political power (Boal 1998). In fact it could be very illuminating to study what theatrical approaches might be necessary for people in power (non-oppressed) to gain important knowledge -out of theatrical events- that can benefit the efficacy of political processes. Also, this research might help or not different activists and academics in the way they produce and present knowledge to policy-makers.
References
Balfour, Michael. 2009. “The Politics of Intention: Looking for a Theatre of Little Changes.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 14 (3): 347–359.
Boal, Augusto. 1985. Theatre of the oppressed. New York: Theatre Communications Group.
Boal, Augusto. 1998. Legislative Theatre: Using Performance to Make Politics. London; New York: Routledge.
Foreman, Christopher H. 1998. The Promise and Peril of Environmental Justice. Brookings Institution Press.
Heddon, Deirdre, and Sally Mackey. 2012. “Environmentalism, Performance and Applications: Uncertainties and Emancipations.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 17 (2): 163–92. doi:10.1080/13569783.2012.670421.
Jackson, Anthony, and Chris Vine. 2013. Learning Through Theatre the Changing Face of Theatre in Education. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=1318933.
Snyder-Young, Dani. 2013. Theatre of Good Intentions Challenges and Hopes for Theatre and Social Change. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=1330966.
Sullivan, J., and R. S. Lloyd. 2006. “The Forum Theatre of Augusto Boal: A Dramatic Model for Dialogue and Community-Based Environmental Science.” Local Environment 11 (6) (December): 627–646. doi:10.1080/13549830600853684.
Taylor, Philip. 2003. Applied Theatre: Creating Transformative Encounters in the Community. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Questions
- Descriptive:
- What specific pedagogical tools have applied theatre practices and theories provided for educators and students when teaching and learning about environmental issues?
- Can applied theatre help structure cohesive and informed action plans for different environmental justice projects?
- Can applied theatre benefit from scientific research and also inform contemporary environmental scientific research?
- What can applied theatre give to scientific research and different communities as they attempt to understand and mindfully use their enormous collective power in the shaping of the earth system?
- Explanatory:
- How are different applied theatre initiatives influencing environmental justice research methods?
- How do different entities measure applied theatre’s influence in action plans that foster social change?
- Evaluative:
- Who have applied theatre practioners in the Americas benefited with their contributions to contemporary discussions about humans’ impact on the earth system, be it impacts on climate, land degradation or other big themes?
Arts and humanities courses
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- HIST-298: Environmental History of Modern West Africa. This course is directly linked to Environmental Studies, as it explores issues of how colonial/imperial theories and West African communities have affected and been affected by the biophysical processes and landscape of West Africa. This class delves into precolonial, colonial and postcolonial theories and practices of "development", agriculture and natural resource management. Furthermore, the class focuses on the contradictions and negotiations between theory and practice put forward by various international communities. These negotiations have shaped environmental problems, discussions and solutions in modern West Africa, and international perceptions of West African landscapes. This course is connected to environmental themes such as perceptions of 'nature', natural resource management, environmental justice, and environmental policy-making and implementation.