Applied Practice: Evidence and Impact in Theatre, Music and Art engages with a diversity of contexts, locations and arts forms - including theatre, music and fine art - and brings together theoretical, political and practice-based perspectives on the question of 'evidence' in relation to participatory arts practice in social contexts. This collection is a unique contribution to the field, focusing on one of the vital concerns for a growing and developing set of arts and research practices. It asks us to consider evidence not only in terms of methodology but also in the light of the ideological, political and pragmatic implications of that methodology. In Part One, Matthew Reason and Nick Rowe reflect on evidence and impact in the participatory arts in relation to recurring conceptual and methodological motifs. These include issues of purpose and obliquity; the relationship between evidence and knowledge; intrinsic and instrumental impacts, and the value of participatory research. Part Two explores the diversity of perspectives, contexts and methodologies in examining what it is possible to know, say and evidence about the often complex and intimate impact of participatory arts. Part Three brings together case studies in which practitioners and practice-based researchers consider the frustrations, opportunities and successes they face in addressing the challenge to produce evidence for the impact of their practice.

Applied Theatre: Creative Ageing examines the complex social, political and cultural needs of a diverse group in our society and asks how contemporary applied theatre responds to those needs. It allows an examination of innovative national and international practice in applied theatre that responds to the needs of older adults to encourage outcomes such as wellbeing and social inclusion. The book does this while also questioning how we, as a society, wish to respond to the complex needs of older adults and the process of ageing and how applied theatre practices can help us do so in a way that is both positive and inclusive. In Part One Sheila McCormick reviews and historicises the practice of applied theatre with, for and by the elderly. It argues that pioneering applied theatre strategies are vital if the creative practice is to respond to the growing needs of older members of society, and reflects on particular cultural responses to ageing and the elderly. The second part of the book is made up of essays and case studies from leading experts and practitioners from Britain, America and Australia, including consideration of applied theatre approaches to dementia, health, wellbeing, social inclusion and Alzheimer's disease.

At once both guide book and provocation, this is an indispensable companion for students and practitioners of applied theatre. It addresses all key aspects: principles, origins, politics and aesthetics in a concise and accessible style designed to appeal both to those who have recently discovered this sub-discipline and to experienced practitioners and academics. Part 1 is divided into two chapters. The first introduces the sub-discipline of Theatre for Development, covering its origins, principles and history, and providing an overview of theatre for development in Western contexts as well as in Africa, Asia, the Indian Subcontinent and Latin America. The second focuses upon theoretical and philosophical issues confronting the discipline and its relationship to contemporary politics, as well as considering its future role. Part 2 consists of seven chapters contributed by leading figures and current practitioners from around the world and covering a diverse range of themes, methodologies and aesthetic approaches. One chapter offers a series of case studies concerned with sexual health education and HIV prevention, drawn from practitioners working in Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Southern Africa, and China. Other chapters include studies of intercultural theatre in the Peruvian Amazon; a programme of applied theatre conducted in schools in Canterbury, New Zealand, following the 2010 earthquake; an attempt to reinvigorate a community theatre group in South Brazil; and an exchange between a Guatemalan arts collective and a Dutch youth theatre company, besides others.

Applied Theatre: Women and the Criminal Justice System offers unprecedented access to international theatre and performance practice in carceral contexts and the material and political conditions that shape this work. Each of the twelve essays and interviews by international practitioners and scholars reveal a panoply of practice: from cross-arts projects shaped by autobiographical narratives through to fantasy-informed cabaret; from radio plays to film; from popular participatory performance to work staged in commercial theatres. Extracts of performance texts, developed with Clean Break theatre company, are interwoven through the collection. Television and film images of women in prison are repeatedly painted from a limited palette of stereotypes - 'bad girls', 'monsters', 'babes behind bars'. To attend to theatre with and about women with experience of the criminal justice system is to attend to intersectional injustices that shape women's criminalization and the personal and political implications of this. The theatre and performance practices in this collection disrupt, expand and reframe representational vocabularies of criminalized women for audiences within and beyond prison walls. They expose the role of incarceration as a mechanism of state punishment, the impact of neoliberalism on ideologies of punishment and the inequalities and violence that shape the lives of many incarcerated women. In a context where criminalized women are often dismissed as unreliable or untrustworthy, the collection engages with theatre practices which facilitate an economy of credibility, where women with experience of the criminal justice system are represented as expert witnesses.

"Applied Theatre: Aesthetics" re-examines how the idea of 'the aesthetic' is relevant to performance in social settings. The disinterestedness that traditional aesthetics claims as a key characteristic of art makes little sense when making performances with ordinary people, rooted in their lives and communities, and with personal and social change as its aim. Yet practitioners of applied arts know that their work is not reducible to social work, therapy or education. Reconciling the simultaneous autonomy and heteronomy of art is the problem of aesthetics in applied arts. Gareth White's introductory essay reviews the field, and proposes an interdisciplinary approach that builds on new developments in evolutionary, cognitive and neuro-aesthetics alongside the politics of art. It addresses the complexities of art and the aesthetic as everyday behaviours and responses. The second part of the book is made up of essays from leading experts and new voices in the practice and theory of applied performance, reflecting on the key problematics of applying performance with non-performers. New and innovative practice is described and interrogated, and fresh thinking is introduced in response to perennial problems.

The book offers a compelling combination of analyis and detailed description of aesthetic projects with young refugee arrivals in Australia. In it the authors present a framework that contextualises the intersections of refugee studies, resilience and trauma, and theatre and arts-based practice, setting out a context for understanding and valuing the complexity of drama in this growing area of applied theatre. "Applied Theatre: Resettlement" includes rich analysis of three aesthetic case studies in Primary, Secondary and Further Education contexts with young refugees. The case studies provide a unique insight into the different age specific needs of newly arrived young people. The authors detail how each group and educational context shaped diverse drama and aesthetic responses: the Primary school case study uses process drama as a method to enhance language acquisition and develop intercultural literacy; the Secondary school project focuses on Forum Theatre and peer teaching with young people as a means of enhancing language confidence and creating opportunities for cultural competency in the school community, and the further education case study explores work with unaccompanied minors and employs integrated multi art forms (poetry, art, drama, digital arts, clay sculptures and voice work) to increase confidence in language acquisition and explore different forms of expression and communication about the transition process. Through its careful framing of practice to speak to concerns of power, process, representation and ethics, the authors ensure the studies have an international relevance beyond their immediate context. "Drama, Refugees and Resilience" contributes to new professional knowledge building in the fields of applied theatre and refugee studies about the efficacy of drama practice in enhancing language acquisition, cultural settlement and pedagogy with newly arrived refugee young people.

This volume offers researchers and practitioners new perspectives on applied theatre work, exploring the relationship between applied theatre and its intent, success and value. Applied theatre is a well-established field focused on the social application of the arts in a range of contexts including schools, prisons, residential aged care and community settings. The increased uptake of applied theatre in these contexts requires increased analysis and understanding of indications of success and value. This volume provides critical commentary and questions regarding issues associated with developing, delivering and evaluating applied theatre programs. Part 1 of the volume presents a discussion of the ways the concept of change is presented to and by funding bodies, practitioners, participants, researchers and policy makers to discover and analyse the relationships between applied theatre practice, transformative intent, and evaluation. Part 2 of the volume offers perspectives from key authors in the field which extend and contextualize the discussion by examining key themes and practice-based examples.

On an April evening in 1934, on the River Arno in Florence, an air squadron, an infantry, a cavalry brigade, fifty trucks, four field and machine gun batteries, ten field radio stations, and six photoelectric units presented a piece of theatre. The mass spectacle, 18 BL involved over two thousand amateur actors and was performed before an audience of twenty thousand. 18 BL is one of eleven extraordinary essays collected together for the first time. The essays have been selected and edited from a wide range of publications dating from the 1940s to the 1990s. The authors are academics, cultural historians, and theatre practitioners - some with direct experience of the harsh conditions of Europe during the war. Each author critically assesses the function of theatre in times of world crisis, exploring themes of Fascist aesthetic propaganda in Italy and Germany, of theatre re-education programmes in the Gulags of Russia, of cultural "sustenance" for the troops at the front and interned German refugees in the UK, or cabaret shows as a currency for survival in Jewish concentration camps.

First Published in 1982 West Germany presents a new approach to the study of contemporary Germany. The past history of the country is used to explain its present state, since the roots of many of the events of this century can be found as far back as the Middle Ages. In order to understand Germany’s relative backwardness in the nineteenth century, it is vital to have some conception of her medieval history, and likewise the descriptions of the constitutions of 1871 and 1919 help to explain why the Basic Law of 1949 took the form it did. The form the book takes is slightly unusual, in that the amount of space devoted to an epoch increases as the present-day approaches, but this is consistent with the aim of the book. This is an important historical document for scholars and researchers of German history and European history.

First Published in 1985 Britain and Joseph Chamberlain is not simply the first biography of Joseph Chamberlain to be written from a radical standpoint but also an exercise in ‘counter -history’. What difference might it have made if Ireland had been set on the road to self-government in 1886, if the reforms of the 1906 Liberal Government had been enacted before 1890 and if it had fallen to a government of the left to handle the Boers? All these possibilities were ruled out when Chamberlain, in a fit of personal animosity, broke with Gladstone over Home Rule. He probably also thereby removed the last chance of the Labour Party growing out of the Liberal Party instead of competing with it for progressive votes, and so facilitating the Conservative domination of politics between 1922-1940. Professor Balfour on the other hand does not believe that, even if Chamberlain had remained a radical and become Prime Minister, he would have been able to arrest Britain’s slackening growth. This book is an important historical document for scholars of British history.

The Adversaries (1981) examines the post-war world that both the US and the Soviet Union tried to mould in their own images. Their faith in their respective systems came at the cost of a political, economic and military clashing in various parts of the world, an antagonism that rendered the United Nations ineffective as an organ of world government. This book analyses these clashes, as the foreign policy decisions of both superpowers had wide-ranging effects over large portions of the globe.

Applied Theatre: Performing Health and Wellbeing is the first volume in the field to address the role that theatre, drama and performance have in relation to promoting, developing and sustaining health and wellbeing in diverse communities. Challenging concepts and understanding of health, wellbeing and illness, it offers insight into different approaches to major health issues through applied performance. With a strong emphasis on the artistry involved in performance-based health responses, situated within a history of the field of practice, the volume is divided into two sections: Part One examines some of the key questions around research and practice in applied performance in health and wellbeing, specifically addressing the different regional challenges that dominate the provision of health care and influence wellbeing: how the ageing population of the global north creates pressure on lifetime healthcare provision, while the global south is dominated by a higher birth rate and a larger population under 15 years old. Part Two comprises case studies and interviews from international practitioners that reflect the diversity of practices across the world and in particular differences between work in the northern and southern hemispheres. These case studies include a sanitation project in a Hmong refugee camp in Thailand in the 1980s, and the sanitation and rural development projects initiated by the travelling theatre troupes of a number of University theatre departments in Africa - Makerere in Kampala, Uganda; Botswana; Lesotho and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - which began in the 1960s. It considers the emergence of Theatre for Development's use as a health approach, considering the work of Laedza Batanani and the influences of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed.

In Germany - The Tides of Power, Michael Balfour sets out to explain the factors which have shaped the German social, political and economic character. Tracing the movement of power from the Middle Ages onwards, he seeks to lead the reader to an understanding of modern Germany - why Germany precipitated, and lost, two major wars this century; how the astonishing growth of wealth over the last half-century was achieved; the meaning behind the recent unification of Germany. As German economic expansion continues into the 1990's, Professor Balfour discusses the power held by this technologically advanced nation - and considers the acceptance of this power by the rest of the world.

This is the first book in English to give a comprehensive account of how soldiers, officials, Christians and workers in Germany fought together to frustrate Hitler's aims.

On an April evening in 1934, on the River Arno in Florence, an air squadron, an infantry, a cavalry brigade, fifty trucks, four field and machine gun batteries, ten field radio stations, and six photoelectric units presented a piece of theatre. The mass spectacle, 18 BL involved over two thousand amateur actors and was performed before an audience of twenty thousand. 18 BL is one of eleven extraordinary essays collected together for the first time. The essays have been selected and edited from a wide range of publications dating from the 1940s to the 1990s. The authors are academics, cultural historians, and theatre practitioners - some with direct experience of the harsh conditions of Europe during the war. Each author critically assesses the function of theatre in times of world crisis, exploring themes of Fascist aesthetic propaganda in Italy and Germany, of theatre re-education programmes in the Gulags of Russia, of cultural "sustenance" for the troops at the front and interned German refugees in the UK, or cabaret shows as a currency for survival in Jewish concentration camps.

The APPLIED THEATRE series is a major innovation in applied theatre scholarship: each book presents new ways of seeing and critically reflecting on this dynamic and vibrant field. Volumes offer a theoretical framework and introductory survey of the field addressed, combined with a range of case studies illustrating and critically engaging with practice. Series Editors: Sheila Preston and Michael Balfour Applied Theatre: Economies addresses a notoriously problematic area: applied theatre's relationship to the economy and the ways in which socially committed theatre makers fund, finance or otherwise resource their work. Part One addresses longstanding concerns in the field about the effects of economic conditions and funding relationships on applied theatre practice. It considers how applied theatre's relationship with local and global economies can be understood from different theoretical and philosophical perspectives. It also examines a range of ways in which applied theatre can be resourced, identifying key issues and seeking possibilities for theatre makers to sustain their work without undermining their social and artistic values. The international case studies in Part Two give vivid insights into the day-to-day challenges of resourcing applied theatre work in Chile, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the US. The authors examine critical issues or points of tension that have arisen in a particular funding relationship or from specific economic activities. Each study also illuminates ways in which applied theatre makers can bring artistic and social justice principles to bear on financial and organizational processes.

What were the consequences for Germany, and the world, that William II was Kaiser at the onset of the 'Great War'? In The Kaiser and His Times (first published in 1964), Michael Balfour analyzes the social, constitutional, and economic forces at work in imperial Germany, and sets the complex and disputed character of the Kaiser, who occupied such a central position in the three decades before 1918, in the context of his family background and the history of Germany. '[Balfour] has borne in mind the Kaiser's own request to the head of his military Secretariat - 'Not dry reports only, please, but now and then a funny story.' The circumstances that allowed to Kaiser to live as if 'The greater part of his life... was illusion' would make comic reading if the results had not been so tragic...' Kirkus Review

After all the endeavours that combined to make Britain the first great industrial nation, that dominant position was then relinquished. Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), the driven and self-made Birmingham businessman who shifted his energies formidably into politics, might have appeared to be one leader well equipped to help Britain stay competitive in the global race for economic growth. But, as Michael Balfour suggests in this absorbing study, Chamberlain's personality and temperament were not suited to the challenge.

Determined always to have his way, animated by 'the business man's love of getting things done', Chamberlain lacked the gift of persuasion and made enemies too well, it being his unique achievement to split both major parties in the space of twenty years. Had it been possible for one man to arrest Britain's slackening growth then that man, Balfour contends, was not the erstwhile 'Radical Joe.'

This was the first book to deal with both British and German propaganda during the Second World War, both as regards to what was said at home and what was said to the enemy. The author was well qualified for the task. Michael Balfour first worked in that part of the Ministry of Information which handled publicity on the home front. In 1942 he moved to the Political War Executive which directed propaganda to the enemy and enemy-occupied countries. His job there involved him in closely following German propaganda.

Many colourful characters, some of a very dubious mien, feature in these pages: Brendan Bracken, Richard Crossman, Sefton Delmer, Lord Haw-Haw and Hans Fritzsche. His handling of Goebbels is especially interesting, departing considerably from the usual stereotype. The second part of the book is a detailed analysis of the way the war news was handled on both sides: a curious set of distorted mirror-images of the main events emerges from the narrative. With his unique knowledge of the subject Michael Balfour was able to write an immensely impressive and stimulating book.

Michael Balfour sets out to explain the factors which have shaped Germany. A satisfactory understanding of the German situation, he feels, can only be gained by a full knowledge of German history from the Middle Ages. It is only this depth of historical insight which can lead the reader to a comprehension of modern Germany - why Germany precipitated - and lost - two major wars this century; the nature of the National Socialist regime; the recent unification of Germany - and the way forward. In examining the German social, political and economic character, Balfour traces the movement of power through the centuries. German history has been dominated by the failure of her medieval rulers to set up strong central governments such as England and France, and the author attributes Germany's position as an industrial backwater in the early 19th century to this early failure of rule. When Germany did achieve unity in 1914 and 1940 she wasted these opportunities in her attempts to gain world power. Balfour then examines by contrast, the astonishing growth of wealth over the last half-century, in which Germany has emerged from its "power vacuum" to dictate European interest rates. This book s

This is the first book in English to give a comprehensive account of how soldiers, officials, Christians and workers together fought to frustrate the aims of Hitler. This book should be of interest to students and lecturers in history and political history.

Exploring theater works created for, by, and with refugees, this hybrid collection of essays combines newly commissioned scholarly work with examples of writing by refugees themselves. These varied contributions illuminate performances that range from theater in Thai refugee camps to site-specific works staged in a run-down immigrant community in the United Kingdom. An exciting addition to the growing field of applied theater, " Refugee Performance "provides inspiring insight into the resilience and creativity of artists responding to one of the most critical issues of our time.

From role-plays with street gangs in the USA to Beckett in Brixton; from opera productions with sex offenders to psychodrama with psychopaths, the book will discuss, analyse and reflect on theoretical notions and practical applications of theatre for and with the incarcerated.
Theatre in Prison is a collection of thirteen international essays exploring the rich diversity of innovative drama works in prisons. The book includes an introduction that will present a contextualisation of the prison theatre field. Thereafter, leading practitioners and academics will explore key aspects of practice &endash; problemitising, theorising and describing specific approaches to working with offenders. The book also includes extracts from prison plays, poetry and prisoners writings that offer illustrations and insights into the experience of prison life.

Applied Theatre: Ethics explores what it means for applied theatre practice to be conducted in an ethical way and examines how this affects the work done with communities and participants. It considers how practitioners can balance aesthetics and ethics when creating performance, particularly with relatively inexperienced and often vulnerable groups of people who are being asked to both tell and stage their stories. The two sections bring together theoretical and practical ways for theatre-makers to examine the ethics of their applied theatre projects. Part One offers an overview of critical debates and the editors' reflections on their own practice. It introduces readers to ethics in applied theatre, informed by the thinking of philosophers, scholarly literature and the editors' own experience, including Indigenous perspectives on ethics and theatre. For applied theatre practitioners, it provides recommendations for community-based ethical approaches working with principles of voice, agency, care, service, collaboration, presence, relationality and reciprocity. Part Two presents a range of international case studies that explore how the theories and issues are worked out in a variety of diverse practices. It considers ethics from varying critical perspectives and contexts, including projects in Greece, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and Canada. Covering work with participants of many ages, the case studies include the work of a professional dance theatre company working with people in substance abuse recovery in the UK, interactive drama used in an educational context in Nigeria, and the complexities around an applied theatre project on race in the US.

This volume offers researchers and practitioners new perspectives on applied theatre work, exploring the relationship between applied theatre and its intent, success and value. Applied theatre is a well-established field focused on the social application of the arts in a range of contexts including schools, prisons, residential aged care and community settings. The increased uptake of applied theatre in these contexts requires increased analysis and understanding of indications of success and value. This volume provides critical commentary and questions regarding issues associated with developing, delivering and evaluating applied theatre programs. Part 1 of the volume presents a discussion of the ways the concept of change is presented to and by funding bodies, practitioners, participants, researchers and policy makers to discover and analyse the relationships between applied theatre practice, transformative intent, and evaluation. Part 2 of the volume offers perspectives from key authors in the field which extend and contextualize the discussion by examining key themes and practice-based examples.