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Applied Drama: A Facilitator's Handbook for Working in Community by Monica Prendergast and Juliana Saxton

2018; Volume: 32; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/dtc.2018.0019

2165-2686

Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson,

Theatre and Performance Studies

Reviewed by: Applied Drama: A Facilitator's Handbook for Working in Community by Monica Prendergast and Juliana Saxton Jodi Van Der Horn-Gibson Applied Drama: A Facilitator's Handbook for Working in Community. By Monica Prendergast and Juliana Saxton. Intellect Press, 2013. Paper $35.50. 246 pages. In Applied Drama: A Facilitator's Handbook for Working in Community, Prendergast and Saxton offer a useful guide for anyone interested in incorporating experiential, arts-based practice into different types of communities. Those in educational fields and professional workplace environments could apply the text's "range of practices" (xi). Outside of educational spaces, community leaders, office managers, and others will find useful information for team-building through arts-based methods and facilitation. Applied Drama presents an essential combination of the history of the field with its theories and practices, while providing readers with specific and detailed instructions on how to incorporate creative practice into their communities. In this text, the authors offer a companion volume to Applied Theatre: International Case Studies and Challenges for Practice, which they published in 2009. Distinguishing between applied drama and applied theatre has been an ongoing effort since the emergence of these theatrical sub-disciplines. Long considered sister practices, applied theatre draws its roots from the United Kingdom's Theatre in Education program of the 1960s. However, in the 1990s, applied drama emerged as a separate and distinct field. Throughout the Preface, the authors illuminate key differences between the two practices, basing their position on the etymology of the Greek terms theatron—"seeing place"—and dran—"to do" or "to act" (xi). They theorize applied drama as an active process of doing (dran), where the structure intends edification of the collective working within the process itself. Meanwhile, they position applied theatre as a process of seeing (theatron). Therefore, an applied theatre collective may anticipate a performance. [End Page 176] The authors write, "Applied drama is less about building drama skills (as in actor training) and more about the investigation at hand" (7). One of the strengths of this text lies in the authors' inclusion of detailed applied drama lesson plans in almost every chapter. They rely on Carole S. Miller and Juliana Saxton's 2004 Into the Story: Language in Action Through Drama as a basis for their organizational structure. Each lesson plan is broken into four categories: "Preparing the Work," "Entering the Work: The Circle," "Engaging in the Work," and "Reflecting on the Work." They then divide each into four subsections: "Grouping," "Strategy," "Administration," and "Focus." The authors deftly explain the necessity of each step by walking the reader through the process, starting with the inception of the group and moving through the culminating reflection at the end. Each lesson plan is meticulously detailed and fully developed; the authors even include specific dialogue a brand new facilitator could find useful. They provide clear definitions of terms, engaging activities and exercises, and suggest areas of further reading specific to that chapter's content. The text functions well as a handbook in this regard, guiding the reader step-by-step. Prendergast and Saxton detail the rich history of applied drama and do so specifically by drawing upon the works of many renowned figures in the field. The "Structure and Grouping" section of the lesson plans reflect Jonothan Neelands and Tim Goode's seminal Structuring Drama Work. Viola Spolin's role-play and storytelling games, and Augusto Boal's Colombian Hypnosis, Forum, and Image Theatre activities are present throughout the text. Additionally, the authors include thought-provoking quotes from long-established practitioners such as Dorothy Heathcote, Helen Nicholson, Patricia Sternberg, and many more. This grounding provides the reader with a broad context upon which to develop their experience with the practices. The quotes excellently frame each section, providing names and texts for further investigation. Perhaps the text's greatest strength lies in its focus on the depth of collaboration necessary for creating applied drama sessions. The responsibility of the group dynamic, in addition to the negotiation of a safe space, falls upon the facilitator, but the entire group must work together to maintain its function. The authors delve into the complexities of building rapport and trust, recognizing that many participants...