Theatre, education and the making of meanings : art or instument? / Anthony Jackson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jackson, Anthony, 1943-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Drama in education.

Theater--History--20th century.

Theater.

History.

Theater--History--21st century.

Physical Description:

ix, 302 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Disbributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2007.

Summary:

This book is a study of theatre's educational role during the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first century. It examines the variety of ways in which the theatre's educational potential has been harnessed and theorised, the claims made for its value and the tension between theatre as education and theatre as 'art': between theatre's aesthetic dimension and the 'utilitarian' or 'instrumental' role for which it has so often been pressed into service.

Following a preliminary discussion of some key theoretical approaches to aesthetics, dramatic art and learning and, above all, the relationships between them, the study is organised into two broad chronological periods: early developments in European and American theatre up to the end of the Second World War, and participatory theatre and education since world war two. Within each period, a cluster of key themes is introduced and then re-visited and examined through a number of specific examples - seen within their cultural contexts - in subsequent chapters. Topics covered include an early use of theatre to campaign for prison reform; workers' theatre, agit-pop and American living newspapers in the 1930s; theatre's response to the dropping of the atom bomb in 1945; post-war theatre in education; theatre in prisons; and the use of performance in historic sites.

The historical roots and precedents of educational - and applied and interventionist - theatre have tended to be ignored in recent years, and the loss of that broader perspective has sometimes resulted in overly narrow concepts of theatre's social function. One of the aims of this study therefore has been to develop an argument about how we might better understand and value these kinds of theatre, historically, philosophically and pragmatically.

Contents:

1 Theatre, learning and the aesthetic dimension: preliminary perspectives 23

Part I Early warnings: theatre, education and social change, 1900-1947

2 Prelude: 1900-1914 - New Drama, new audiences 49

3 Agitating the audience: theatre, propaganda and education in the 1930s 66

4 Theatre and the challenge of science, 1936-1947: some historical perspectives 99

Part II Postwar: theatre, learning and participation

5 Audience participation and aesthetic distance 129

6 Positioning the audience: framing the drama 159

7 Creative gaps: the didactic and the dialogic 179

8 Targets, outcomes - and playfulness 198

9 Inter-acting with the past: the use of participatory theatre at museums and heritage sites 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [274]-289) and index.

ISBN:

0719065429

9780719065422

0719065437

9780719065439

OCLC:

154789070