Bringing to the Surface Dormant Prejudice: Participatory Theatre for Education & The Necessary Rifts of Risk Taking

This articles charts a recent conference training event for TENet hosted in Spetses. The article explores several techniques resulting from longitudinal PhD research studies considering means to increase possibilities for change and impact within educational settings with vulnerable young people. The article draws upon social psychological, social constructionism and educational rhetoric as a conceptual framework to explore strategies offered by participatory theatre to challenge dormant prejudice in light of the rise of Golden Dawn and blame culture results from the current economic crisis. The article proposes the need for changes in thinking and political motivation of theatre in education, most specifically exploring links between participatory theatre, witnessing and doubt as forms of action to awaken critical though, shift social blame and thereby propose strategies to challenge detrimental constructs that lead to violence, aggression and prejudice. The paper explores two new strategies, which have been trialled and proven successful in deprived schools in inner city London, used as training tools as part of the conference/summer seminar series in July 201

Marginalised Youth in the App Generation: Making the Case for the Integration of Digital Technologies in Process Drama

This paper intends to argue that the introduction of digital technology into Process Drama is not an attempt to replace the imaginative realm of play. Instead digital technologies can aid immersion into the liminal space of a workshop. The App Generation, Generation Z, or the ‘post-millenials’ form a new community of young people who are digitally literate, who have grown up surrounded by technology that they have learnt to engage with as part of their development: Technology is a new instrument of play. The intention of this research is to present an argument for the effectual integration of technology into Process Drama to revive and update the approach. The intention is to engage participants in an experience that speaks to their own worlds. I will draw upon a project I undertook in a primary school with six 8-9yrs old children to further justify the needs for digital technologies in Process Drama and reflect upon the possibilities offered by this approach

Witnessing Change: Understanding Change in Participatory Theatre Practice with Vulnerable Youth in a Kids Company Supported Primary School.

This article details key findings from a longitudinal study conducted in collaboration with Kids Company, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. (AHRC). The focus of this article is the role of the ‘teacher as witness’ to the impact of a participatory theatre project with vulnerable young people. This research argues that the opportunities afforded by challenging pre-emptive constructs of vulnerable youth held by a teacher, can enable changes that take place within a workshop, which can often remain temporary and confined to the space and time of a project, to transition back into the wider school environment. Drawing upon the concept of witnessing discussed by Laub and Felman (1992), Rymaszewska (2006), Gerhardt (2004) and Coady (1992, 2002), this article proposes that witnessing change can offer a means of sustaining impact. Insights into this proposition are offered in an example case study analysis of a project I conducted within a Kids Company supported primary school setting in Lambeth, South –East London

The Creature Methodology: Reflexivity and the Applied Theatre Practitioner in Training

This article focuses on the Creature Methodology, a tool to enable students to critically frame and analyse the imposition of their social constructs onto those they work with. This article will unpack the pedagogical approach for this drama in education strategy noting the possibilities it presents for promoting reflexive practice

The Intuit: An Investigation into the Definitions, Applications, and Possibilities offered by Intuitive Applied Theatre Practice with Vulnerable Youth

This article offers insights into what might constitute intuition in applied theatre practices with vulnerable youth in London. The study will explore the approaches of five theatre companies working with children and vulnerable youth. A lead practitioner from each company has been interviewed, and the interpretation of the data they have provided has offered new insights into the role of intuition as an approach to ensuring applied theatre is responsive to young people living precarious lives. The research identifies two aspects of intuitive practice, one that resides with the actions and thoughts of the practitioner, and the other with the acceptance of intuitive creative offers by participants. The study has also revealed the potential heightening of intuitive responses for practitioners who share history, culture, location or identities with their participants. Altogether the findings from the research offer useful potential considerations of key qualities for an intuitive practitioner, or the Intuit, working specifically with young people in contexts of uncertainty

Search for Electroweak Supersymmetry in final states with three electrons or muons plus missing transverse momentum in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS Detector

A search for the electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos decaying into final states involving three electrons or muons is presented. The analysis is based on 36.1 fb^-1 of √s = 13TeV proton–proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Scenarios considered are based on simplified models with the associated production of the next-to-lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino, followed by their decays into final states with leptons and the lightest neutralino via either sleptons or Standard Model gauge bosons. No significant deviations from Standard Model expectations are observed and stringent limits at 95% confidence level are placed on the masses of relevant supersymmetric particles. For a massless lightest neutralino, masses up to 1.13TeV are excluded for the associated production of the next-to-lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino, assuming slepton mediated decays, whereas for gauge-boson-mediated decays, masses up to 380 GeV are excluded

The Creature in the Corner: A Methodology for Teaching Reflexivity

The 2018 Reflective Conservatoire Conference will consider how artists, arts organisations, and specialist higher education in the performing arts in particular, can and are already engaging with artistic citizenship within contemporary societies. What are the possibilities for practitioners individually and collectively? How is specialist higher education changing in response to this agenda; what are the implications and opportunities for organisational development and leadership