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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.
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.
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.
Nicola McCartney's work as a practitioner of Applied Theatre has had impacts on civil society, education, and cultural life, contributing to transforming society by directly benefitting both vulnerable groups and theatre professionals internationally. Via her work with Rachel's House, a prisoner re-entry programme in Ohio, 7 women ex-offenders and 8 members of staff benefitted from McCartney's use of dramatic narrative as the basis for therapeutic interventions and to facilitate the integration of disenfranchised groups into mainstream communities. 80 Theatre professionals in Russia, and pupils and teachers from 8 Moscow schools, have also benefitted from training in McCartney's Applied Theatre methods, providing them with a new and innovative way of working with disenfranchised groups and individuals.
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.
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.
The Enchanted Palace was a collaborative project between theatre company WildWorks and Historic Royal Palaces (HRP). It transformed the State Apartments at Kensington Palace into an interactive exhibition (26 March 2010 — 1 June 2012) which brought the stories and the palace to life.
The Enchanted Palace enabled Kensington Palace to remain open during a two-year £12 million refurbishment. The project brought in income, safeguarded jobs and drew in new audiences. Thirteen community groups, schools and colleges were involved in its creation while 10 high-profile designers were invited to create work in response to the stories of the palace. The Enchanted Palace increased the numbers of Palace visitors (even during this refurbishment period) and was widely covered in the press featuring on the International Council of Museums website www.clothestellstories.com as an example of good practice.
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.
Reminiscence theatre's primary goals are to improve the well-being of senior citizens and promote intergenerational dialogue. ARTA has successfully engaged 100 marginalised older people, 13 young volunteers and over 200 others since 2012. The project has created a new model of reminiscence theatre by proving that archive material can be used instead of live interviews. It has learned the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and found creative solutions to the problems. It has also given the Reminiscence Theatre Archive a long-term `living' future. Finally ARTA has disseminated good practice internationally through a website, articles, training events and conferences.
The British Asian Theatre Project (2004-2009), involved researchers from the Centre for Performance Histories and Cultures. The project charted and disseminated the cultural history and heritage of British Asian theatrical practitioners, enriching appreciation and preserving the heritage of British Asian theatre, partly by enabling theatre professionals to possess their own history more securely. Research findings were presented as part of industry debates, informing theatrical development. This led to a further research project, `The Southall Story' (2011-2013), which is documenting the cultural history of the art forms and political movements among the British Asian communities in Southall. There is further funding via the AHRC Follow On grant scheme for a touring exhibition and performances, emerging from `The Southall Story,' in the source culture of India, and on to Thailand. These projects are preserving and disseminating this public history through a public digital archive, and series of community and arts events in the UK and internationally. All the research is supported by AHRC funding, awarded after a rigorous peer-review process.