ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with applied performance practices that materialise dormant or hidden power dynamics, often with the stated or unstated aim to correct imbalances of power or injustices from the past to create a different kind of future. Performance practices have a long history of engaging with ‘the social, education and political functions of theatrical processes’ in sites far from formal theatres: from schools, prisons and residential care homes to refugee camps, hospitals and communities negotiating conflict and disaster. Predictably, priorities for applied performance vary from country to country, continent to continent. As many of the chapters bear witness, applied performance in several parts of the world is sadly a matter of life and death; an assertion of unquenchable life in the face of threat of death. Current debates are critical to the reframing of applied performance in relation to the ‘doing’ of drama and performance. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
