Description
The first volume to examine the role of theatre, drama and performance in relation to promoting, developing and sustaining health and wellbeing.
About the Author
Katharine E. Low is a lecturer in Applied Theatre and Community Performance at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, UK. She has previously researched and facilitated practice in Tanzania and South Africa with specific reference to sexual health and local responses to HIV/AIDS prevention, as well as working with HIV+ refugee women in Manchester. Dr Veronica Baxter is the convenor of the Honours programme and the Masters in Applied Theatre at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and has taught at South African and English universities for 25 years, focusing on applied theatre and drama, directing, theatre history and South African theatre.
Reviews
This collection adds rich new perspectives to ongoing debates about the cultural locations of health care, theatre, and power ... A highly valuable contribution to expanding the boundaries of this growing field. * New Theatre Quarterly *
Emphasizing ways in which performance techniques can support the promotion of health care, Applied Theatre is a valuable, well-researched study on a topic of practical concern. Reconsidering established notions of how illness and wellness are broadly understood, the collection examines both practical and aesthetic concerns in reconsidering prevailing concepts. In part 1, Baxter (Univ. of Cape Town, South Africa) and Low (Univ. of London, UK), both specialists in applied theater, introduce the book and establish its goals. The chapters in part 2 are multifaceted: primarily geographical, they identify specific health problems facing populations in the "global" north (ageing citizenry) and south (higher birth rate, more youthful population), and the aesthetic and research means by which these "local" problems can be addressed. The more interesting parts of each chapter are case studies and interviews with artists and medical practitioners, many in the developing world, dealing with hygiene and sanitation concerns, rural development issues, and so on. Though pitched at practitioners using theatrical techniques in health care broadly defined, the volume offers fascinating angles on a little-explored subject that will interest readers in a variety of disciplines. Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *
Book Information
ISBN 9781472584571
Author Dr Veronica Baxter
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 420g