ABSTRACT
Conceptualising a poetics of applied theatre requires consideration of all those elements that contribute to the ways in which a theatrical communication is received and understood by its audience. The use of ‘poetics’ does not endorse a binary division between content and form that would privilege the ‘content’ as the maker of meaning and reduce the ‘form’ to the delivery of that meaning. One of the key areas which differentiate the poetics of applied theatre from those of the mainstream is that of target, or context-specific, audience. Typically with applied theatre practices there is a strong, intentional relationship between the manner in which piece is created and the idea or picture of the audience for whom it is created. Yet if earnest facilitators believe that part of their function is to support communities in resisting the global monoculture, it may be that they become guilty, themselves, of imposing a poetic that they deem appropriate or traditional upon the hapless participants.
