Dramatising Cultural Diversity: Youth Theatre as a Performance of Local Memory and Identity in a Multiethnic Environment

This article presents a comparative analysis of two ethnographic case studies conducted in local theatres in the Slovak town of Komárno and the British city of Coventry. These two locations are very different – one is a small town on the Slovak-Hungarian border and the other an urban centre in the Midlands region of Britain – and yet they are both characterised by the multiethnic and culturally diverse composition of their populations. The two youth theatres in question are also distinct in their genres: one bases its performances on folklore traditions, whereas the other is an avant-garde physical theatre. At the same time, the productions of both groups manifest a deep involvement in the representation of cultural heritage and the current social issues in their respective locations. Drawing on anthropological conceptualisations of theatre as a form of ritualised performance (see Turner, 1969, 1982; Schechner, 1985, 1993), this paper explores the processes and contexts of the enactment of past conflict and/or violence presented by the two theatrical groups in order to engage with traumatic events in local (and national) history. These processes, which embrace the values of cultural diversity and inclusion, are important for the construction of community identities. The liminality of ritualised performance enables actors and audiences to cross social (including ethnicity and class) and temporal boundaries. They reproduce memories of past violence to make sense of present tensions, such as growing nationalism and xenophobia, and to project their vision of the communal future. This often results in the contestation of the very meaning of place, community and belonging. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that such artistic interpretations of the local past and heritage are instrumental in shaping the identities of the participating youth. The comparison of the two cases also reveals noticeable differences between cosmopolitan and ethno-cultural discourses, which are prevalent in imagining the place, history and heritage of Coventry and Komárno respectively.

Современная драматургия

The article discusses the book entitled Modern Dramaturgy: Genre Transformation, Modifications, Innovations by a well-known Ukrainian author, Evgueni Vassiliev. The reviewer considers the monograph to be an important contribution to the development of dramaturgy of contemporary literary studies; therefore, it is highly rated. Evgueni Vassiliev died in 2021, so the article also includes his biography, which shows a considerable number of research achievements of the author, a literary critic, a researcher of contemporary drama and theatre, a director of the youth theatre in Rivne, and an initiator of numerous conferences (Kondratievski’s Readings).

“I’m So Happy I’m Here Tonight”

How valuable is youth artistry in Toronto theatrical productions? How important is including diverse and under-represented youths at cornerstone theatre festivals like SummerWorks? What are the barriers to youth theatre? In our article, we explore these questions by examining the AMY (Artists Mentoring Youth) Project, which seeks to provide accessible performing arts training and creation programs to women and non-binary youth from equity-seeking communities. In addition to examining the relationship the mentors of the program have with the participants, we look at how vital youth representation is at SummerWorks. The AMY Project works to break down barriers that are often felt by youths in performing arts, and, as a result, young people produce socially engaging work that is well received and necessary to the festival and the Toronto theatre community.

Young People as Legislators: Legislative Theatre and Youth Parliament

Young People as Legislators is the result of a six-month Legislative Theatre project with Collective Encounters Youth Theatre, Youth Focus NW and Youth Parliament UK. The project formed part of a wider scheme of practice as research that explored youth theatre practice as political engagement for young people. Legislative Theatre practice was utilized to work alongside the Youth Parliament’s Make Your Mark scheme, an annual poll for young people to decide on campaigning issues. In this article, I consider three elements: tokenism in youth engagement, differing experiences between artistic process and product, and applied theatre’s inability to develop long-term effects. Employing the critical theories of Paulo Freire, the article regards the practice as a failed attempt to develop critical youth theatre practice. I argue that the Legislative Theatre project led to uncritical engagement and no political change due to partner organizations regarding the theatre practice as a service to satisfy their own targets and requirements.

Youth Theatre and Community Empowerment in Ghana

As contemporary theatre and new production models are now being evaluated with more regard to community empowerment, the importance of proper tools for evaluation of the process has increased. The article explored the community youth theatre practices of the Community Youth Cultural Centre (CYCC) of the National Commission on Culture (NCC) in Ghana. We examined the role of the youth theatre at CYCC in the light of community empowerment. Using the qualitative case study design, six artists with a minimum of five years and a maximum of thirty years of work experience with the CYCC were interviewed. Performance activities and documents of the CYCC were also observed and analysed. The findings revealed four themes: Objectives of the centre; Youth theatre practices; Abibigoro/puppetry theatre models; and non-formal and cultural education. It was found that staff and artists at the CYCC employed diverse theatrical modes to facilitate community empowerment processes. The study recommends that cultural and creative centres in Ghana should harness the potentials of the community youth theatre, develop community-specific and context-driven performance models to support artistic- aesthetic-cultural and non-formal education processes to enhance our collective strive for community empowerment in Ghana.

Theatre Connect: Key Strategies for Facilitating LGBTQQ Youth Theatre Programs

Youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQQ) often experience heterosexism, homophobia, prejudice, and bullying in addition to the typical demands of adolescent development. Applied theatre programs have been shown to empower youth, improve mental health and well-being, and create positive identity and interpersonal relationships and, as such, have the potential to strengthen a range of protective factors for LGBTQQ youth. However, when programs engage participants in personal narratives, practitioners must be prepared to deftly navigate between the two domains of theatre in health and drama therapy. Since 2017, the University of Florida’s (UF) Center for Arts in Medicine has offered an afterschool theatre program for LGBTQQ youth in partnership with clinicians from UF Health’s Youth Gender Clinic and faculty in the Mental Health Counseling training program in the College of Education. Theatre practitioners lead the program in partnership with mental health professionals, who participate in sessions and are “on call” for participants. Program facilitators have developed a set of guidelines for organizations attempting to start LGBTQQ or other youth theatre programs in their local communities, which include the following recommendations: (1) prioritize safe and ethical practice through creating sustainable partnerships between mental health counsellors, experienced theatre practitioners, and local LGBTQQ organizations; (2) develop a clear contract between participants and facilitators regarding program goals; (3) utilize Baim’s drama spiral as a conceptual tool and limit program activities to the first four spiral rings; (4) emphasize “play” and skill building rather than LGBTQQ topics.

Devising in the Pandemic: Trauma and a Dramatic Redesign of a Youth Theatre Tour

Z402 Youth Theatre Tour was designed from a critical performative pedagogical positioning (Weltsek, 2019). Here learning emerges from how individuals and communities perform their emergent identities as they cross literal and metaphorical socio-cultural borders. Z402 resulted in a 100% student created new play, parallel workshop, and study guide. This new play was based solely upon the students’ perspectives, voices, and ways of being. The design used devised theatre, the use of improvisation and games, to create a new play versus a solely written approach. The new play dealt with healing in the face of suicidal thoughts. The course addressed four Indiana educational licensing requirements; student technical, artistic, educational, and class practicum experiences. In March 2020, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the University instituted obligatory Online instruction. Students redesigned their stage play into a virtual experience using Zoom and integrated their emotional struggles due to pandemic isolation. The live play, slated for three schools, is now accessible to a large virtual audience

Virtually Commedia: An interactive online theatre programme for LGBTQ+ youth

Many individuals experienced increased isolation and loneliness due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on social activities, yet the impacts of this isolation can be more pronounced for vulnerable populations such as LGBTQ+ youth. In order to offer a destigmatized space for LGBTQ+ youth to connect during the pandemic, facilitators at the University of Florida modified an LGBTQ+ youth theatre programme (Theatre Connect) to be delivered via an online platform. In the spring of 2021, facilitators developed an eight-week Commedia dell’Arte curriculum that was delivered over Zoom to nine youth. Although modified to fit the needs of the group, the programme provided the opportunity for urban and rural youth to connect with one another and develop theatre skills in a safe environment. These field notes describe curriculum development as well as challenges, successes and feedback. Due to the success of this programme, Theatre Connect will maintain online programming in future seasons.

Theatre life in the village – a new kind of leisure for peasant youth in the 1920s

The purpose of the article is to highlight theatrical art as a form of organized cultural leisure of peasant youth during the 1920s. Research methods: problem-chronological, historical-systemic and analytical. Main results. It is found that drama circles and rural theatre were in great demand among young people and became the most popular form of leisure in the village. The organizers of group theatrical work were Komsomol activists and teachers. It is found that the latter, being an educated part of the rural environment, became more productive and effective in setting up appropriate work with peasant youth. There were organizational and financial problems in the practice of theatre companies and drama circles. It was one of the reasons for the low quality of youth theatre performances. At the same time, there were many successful amateur groups in the districts of the Ukrainian SSR. The author shows that the role and place of peasant youth in drama circles and rural theatres was determined by the political education policy of the ruling party. The filling of youth leisure by rural theatre was to perform several functions, including raising the general cultural level of the population, deepening political consciousness, anti-religious propaganda and levelling the dominant traditional forms of leisure for young peasant population. Taking into consideration the functions and tasks, set by the ruling elite before theatrical and dramatic circles, the themes of plays and performances were also appropriate. They tried to select the whole repertoire in the direction of general strengthening of the Bolshevik Party position in the countryside. Considering the possibility of influence of this type of art on young people consciousness formation, in the conditions of the totalitarian regime it was doomed to its political and ideological service. Practical significance: recommended for use in the study of rural youth leisure, the study of history of rural theatre as an original phenomenon in the village of the NEP period. Originality: the author generalizes the experience of creating leisure of rural youth of the post-revolutionary period in the conditions of ideological and cultural transformations. Scientific novelty: for the first time peasant youth is considered by the author as a subject of the formation of a new type of leisure of the Ukrainian village of the 1920s. Article type: review-generalizing.