ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the specific tensions that exist in the drama/social justice space. It has been necessarily broad in an attempt to paint a canvas some of the significant challenges in drama for/about social change. The aggravating factors include the non-traditional performance spaces in which much applied drama and theatre work often takes place: crowded classrooms or cold community centres are far-removed from the gilded surrounds that characterises the dominant Western theatrical aesthetic trope. Cecily O'Neill is an international authority on process drama, she rescued and re-presented earlier artistry of Dorothy Heathcote, and extended it in her own work, where she dealt extensively with issues of form and was never afraid to engage with the idea of aesthetics. When one considers the historical fact of a practice-derived evolution in applied drama, combined with the multifaceted nature and potential extremes in the relationship between art and social change.
