Theatre and Performance in the Neoliberal University: Responses to an Academy in Crisis

263 Pages·2019·2.871 MB·English

by  Kim Solga (editor)

i
Theatre and Performance in the
Neoliberal University
Exploring how educators and institutions might embrace the STEAM
turn to ensure that theatre and performance can be instrumental to the
neoliberal university, without being instrumentalised by it, this volume
showcases alternative models for teaching and learning in theatre and
performance in a neoliberal age.
OriginallyaspecialissueofResearchinDramaEducation,thisvolume
foregrounds these ideas in six principal articles, and provides a range
of potential models for change in 12 case study discussions. Detailing
a variety of ‘best practices’ in theatre and performance education,
contributors demonstrate how postsecondary educators around the
world have recentred drama and performance by collaborating with
STEM-side faculty, using theatre principles to frame and support
interdisciplinary learning, and working toward important applications
beyond the classroom. Arguing that the neoliberal university needs
theatre and performance more than ever, this valuable collection
emphasises the critical contribution which these subjects continue to
make to the development of students, staff, and institutions.
This book will be of particular interest to students, researchers, and
librarians in the fields of Theatre Studies, Performance Studies, Applied
Theatre, Drama in Education, and Holistic Education.
Kim Solga is Professor of English and Writing Studies at Western
University, Canada.

iii
Theatre and Performance
in the Neoliberal
University
Responses to an Academy
in Crisis
Edited by Kim Solga
Firstpublished2020
byRoutledge
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Theatre and Performance, Crisis
and Survival 1
KIMSOLGA
SECTIONONE
Face the Steamroller—Essays 9
1 Power and Privilege in a Neoliberal Perspective: The
Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics at
Georgetown University 11
ASIFMAJID
2 Theatre Training and Performance Practice in Neoliberal
Zimbabwean Universities: Survival Strategies and
Frustrations 32
NKULULEKOSIBANDA
3 Television as Theatre Text in the Austere Academy:
A Curricular Exploration 50
HILLARYMILLER
4 Faces Between Numbers: Reimagining Theatre and
Performance as Instruments of Critical Data Studies
Within a Liberal Arts Education 71
RICHARDC.WINDEYER
vii Contents vii
5 Towards a Concept of Inefficiency in Performance and
Dialogue Practice 92
LINDATAYLOR
6 Masihambisane [Let’s Walk]: Walking the City as an
Interdisciplinary Pedagogical Experiment in Durban,
South Africa 115
MIRANDAYOUNG-JAHANGEERANDBRIDGETHORNER
SECTIONTWO
Trust the Work—Case Studies 135
7 Living the Interdiscipline: Conceiving, Developing,
Managing, and Learning From a Large-Scale,
Multidisciplinary,Scenario-BasedProjectSupportingPolice
De-Escalation Training in Ontario 137
NATALIEALVAREZ,INTERVIEWEDBYKIMSOLGA
8 Hul’q’umi’num’ Language Heroes: A Successful
Collaboration Between Elders, Community
Organisations, and Canadian West Coast Universities 148
KIRSTENSADEGHI-YEKTA
9 Celebratory Theatre: A Response to Neoliberalism
in the Arts 157
YASMINEKANDILANDHANNAHTEBOKKEL
10 The Performative Foreign Language Classroom
as a Site of Creative Disruption 165
ANNASANTUCCI
11 Reimagining Applied Practices: A Case Study on the
Potential Partnership Between Applied Practices and
Education for Sustainable Development 173
ALEXCAHILLANDPAULWARWICK
12 Exacting Collaboration: Performance as Pedagogy
in Interdisciplinary Contexts 181
ZACHARYA.DORSEY
viii Contents viii
13 Working at the Margins: Theatre, Social Science, and
Radical Political Engagement 187
JULIAGRAYANDPIAKONTOS
14 Devilish Deals: Art, Research, and Activism With/in the
Institution 194
OONAHATTON
15 The Verbatim Formula: Caring for Care Leavers in the
Neoliberal University 200
MAGGIEINCHLEY,SADHVIDAR,SUSMITAPUJARA,
ANDSYLVANBAKER
16 Emancipated Spectators in the Theatre History Classroom 208
SUSANNESHAWYER
17 Surviving, But Not Thriving: The Politics of Care and the
Experience of Motherhood in Academia 215
KATHARINELOWANDDIANADAMIANMARTIN
18 Writing Wrongs: Disruptive Feminist Teaching Within
the (Anxious) Ivory Tower 224
JAYMEKILBURN
AFTERWORD
A Care Manifesto 231
19 Tactics, Practical and Imagined 233
DIANADAMIANMARTIN,SHARONGREEN,CLARANIZARD,
THERONSCHMIDT,MAXSCHULMAN,ANDKIMSOLGA
Index 242
ix
Acknowledgements
The material reproduced in this volume first appeared as a special issue
of Research in Drama Education (RiDE), volume 24 issue 3, August
2019. My heartfelt thanks and enormous admiration to Colette Conroy
and Lucy Nevitt for seeing it through from start to finish, and for the
commission in the first place.
The invitation from Colette to build the issue hit a nerve and lit a
spark. That spark became a blaze, a good one, and it illuminated four
productive and moving gatherings: a two-day symposium at the Royal
Central School of Speech and Drama, London, in December 2017; a
large roundtable at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research
(CATR) conference in Kingston, ON, in May 2018; a curated panel at
the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) conference in
Boston, MA in July, 2018; and an intimate convening of brave souls at
the ad-hoc ASTR (American Society for Theatre Research) event in
San Diego, CA in November, 2018.
I’m grateful to every one of the colleagues who attended these events
andofferedtheirperspectives,theirhope,theirrage,andtheiranguish.I
cannot single out everyone, but please know that I see you, friends, and
amforeverappreciative.SpecialthanksregardlesstoAdamAlston,Gary
Anderson, Barry Freeman, and Rachel Hann.
I’m more than grateful—I’m in debt, in fact—to the four colleagues
who made each one of these events possible, and whom I will gladly
follow into the bunker when the apocalypse comes: Sylvan Baker,
Diana Damian Martin, Rebecca Hayes Laughton, and Katherine Low.
Kids, I’ll bring the baked beans and the gin.
For their financial support for these events, I’m grateful to the Royal
Central School of Speech and Drama, as well as to Western University
and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Thanks to you, finally, for reading and sharing this work.