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Professor Tim Prentki's research focuses on how the arts can benefit both society and the individual, with a particular focus on the methods practitioners can employ to achieve positive change and improve the quality of life within specific communities. His work challenges cultural values and social assumptions and contributes to debates about civil society and policy making.
The impact of this work has been felt in the following areas:
His recent, original contribution to the field lies in his ground-breaking practice of linking facilitation, central to the development of `truthful' performance, to the traditional role of the `fool' in theatre.
Research at UEL has contributed to international practices of conflict prevention through applied performance practice-as-research. Initially based on the use of culture in post-genocide Rwanda, it has been extended since 2008 to applied performance practices in Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The research has had wide-ranging impacts, including on international practices of conflict prevention; public awareness and understanding of conflict issues; public access to and participation in political processes in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; the design and delivery of school curricula and new extra-curricula opportunities for young people (especially in Kyrgyzstan); the inspiration, creation and support of new forms of artistic and social expression (particularly in performance art); and the integration of participatory practices as a teaching and learning method in the UK and abroad. The research has also delivered local economic benefits and improvements in the welfare and quality of life of individuals involved in projects in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Bill McDonnell's research into participatory theatre has impacted on culture, education, and policy, both nationally, through a report — Social Impact in UK Theatre — commissioned by Arts Council England and the Independent Theatre Council, which remains the only report exclusively devoted to the social impact of theatre; and locally, through `Acting Together', a Theatre in Education company led by McDonnell, which works with museums and schools to promote diversity, inclusiveness, multiculturalism, and civic cohesiveness; and to increase the skills, knowledge, and cultural agility of children from areas of significant socio-economic deprivation, enriching the lives, imaginations, and sensibilities of individuals and groups.
The impacts of the research include: a) promotion of self-esteem in transgendered youth; b) changing attitudes among school and college students and training teachers; c) modelling best practice in support organisations; d) shaping opinion in influential forums up to Parliamentary level. These impacts are planned, centrally coordinated and delivered by an infrastructure developed out of the research for this purpose: Gendered Intelligence (GI). Co-founded by researcher Catherine McNamara, GI is the leading organisation in its field, with impacts felt nation-wide, from Plymouth to East Anglia. The value of GI's impact has been recognised at governmental level by the Minister for Schools.
Allan Owens has worked worldwide to bring drama into the professions. He has developed an artistic form that has impacted in a wide range of contexts including the social sector, in education, health, and public service, and also in private business. The trajectory of his research and practice has been concerned with pioneering the use of pre-text based process drama as a form of artistic initiative beyond mainstream education. The underlying research consists of authored articles and pre-texts which were part of the 2008 RAE submission classed as `internationally recognised with world leading elements'.
Research conducted at UEL as part of an ESRC-funded participatory project exploring identity, performance and social action among refugee communities in London has enhanced cohesion within the participating communities, and supported the transfer of specialist expertise and skills from academia to local community and artistic organisations. The latter have benefitted both from the development of innovative methodological research tools and from researchers' support for their subsequent adoption in work with different communities. The research has also contributed to the development of new artistic and cultural resources, including a Verbatim and Forum theatre play. The communication of key research findings through this and other forums has increased public engagement with, and sensitized audiences to, issues relating to the everyday life experiences of refugees in Metropolitan London.
Exeter Drama's research in Applied Theatre has had impact in the improvement of community understandings of mental health, providing professional development for medics and teachers, and providing and informing training in applied and community theatre. This case study outlines the impact of last twenty years of research and performance practice in applied theatre, developed by Honorary Research Fellow (2005-) and former senior lecturer (1990-2005) John Somers, and continued in the work of Fiona MacBeth, Kerrie Schaefer, Sarah Goldingay, Anna Harpin, and Jane Milling. Somers developed new approaches to community theatre and has given presentations on this work internationally. Impact has also been achieved through Somers' founding of the applied theatre company Exstream (Exeter, 2001) and under his direction Exstream achieved a reputation for excellence through the development of interactive theatre, raising awareness of issues related to wellbeing, mental health, and creativity within the community.
The research and the practice methodology that underpin the emergence of the responsive play scripts, alongside the performances of the plays, have had the following impacts:
b) Communities, the General Public, Audiences — restoring, and increasing opportunities for audiences disenfranchised from access to locally generated performance by Chester's Gateway Theatre's closure (2007), to see and/or participate in performance events of high professional standard and thereby engage with local narratives and histories
c) Local theatre professionals — restoring and increasing employment opportunities, and broadening skill sets appropriate to non-traditional performance contexts
Reach: theatre audiences: 7,480; audiences at outdoor events: 27,000.
Significance: evidenced by repeat commissions for playscripts and touring productions.
Research undertaken at the University of East London has confronted the historical lack of documentation, representation and participation in the British theatre by ethnic minority communities, with particular reference to the British Asian community. This work has been used to create and shape the production of important new theatre pieces, as well as to engage and develop new young and diverse audiences for them. Workshops, post-show discussions and symposia relating to the production of these pieces have increased the engagement of these new audiences both with theatre generally, and with the often sensitive, contested, and politically-charged subject-matter of the specific pieces under review. The research has also been used as the basis for the development and delivery of professional development training for emerging theatre artists from minority community backgrounds.
RBC has a long-standing relationship to this area of practice, culminating in the establishing of its Theatre for Young Audiences Centre, April 2011. The research outlined has had an impact on professional practice, international co-operation, training and critical approaches in this under-investigated area of practice. The Lead Researcher/Head of Centre, Jeremy Harrison (JH), built on the work of Julian Bryant, Director of Community Outreach, whose activities in this area began in the 1990s. It is augmented and strengthened by contributions from a range of Associate Researchers all of whom are leading practitioners within the TYA sectors of UK and Europe. TYA Centre website: bit.ly/IgVmcw