Challenging Structural Violence through Community Theatre: Exploring Theatre as Transformative Praxis (original) (raw)

In this chapter we examine community theatre as an example of arts practice that has gained significant interest as a form of social action in different social and health science disciplines. Community theatre is an umbrella term for different forms of Participatory Theatre such as Forum and Playback Theatre, which have the broad goal of challenging forms of structural violence through processes such as story- telling, active witnessing, and embodiment. In this chapter we discuss community theatre and highlight its use as a research methodology. We frame our discussion of community theatre with reference to arts-based research and performative social science which challenge the singular master narrative underpinning traditional methodologies. We discuss community theatre in relation to participatory action research and argue that it provides unique tools for making visible the ways in which racism, sexism and other forms of exclusion are produced, and it also opens up possibilities for new narratives to inform social identities. We illustrate these points using projects from two different countries - Melbourne, Australia, and Kingston, Jamaica - that have used theatre praxis to address forms of structural violence. We discuss community theatre as an ethical participatory approach that can contribute to the goals of peace psychology research.