Drama Research Volume 14 - NATIONAL DRAMA

Drama Research Volume 14

ISSN 2040-2228
April 2023

Editorial

Volume 14 Editorial

Editorial Welcome to the fourteenth issue of Drama Research! This is the second issue in our new format, and it has a truly international dynamic, featuring articles from Colombia, Greece, Norway and the USA as well as the UK. One thing that all these countries have in common through recent experience is, of course, the

Read More »

Volume 14 Editorial

Editorial Welcome to the fourteenth issue of Drama Research! This is the second issue in our new format, and it has a truly international dynamic, featuring articles from Colombia, Greece, Norway and the USA as well as the UK. One thing that all these countries have in common through recent experience is, of course, the

Read More »

Articles

Speech Bubbles and the Teaching Assistant: investigating the impact of a drama intervention on school support staff.

Teaching Assistants have become an essential part of primary school life over the last 30 years. They represent around one third of the overall school workforce, a higher percentage in primary school and nurseries. Despite training and qualification opportunities, most are relatively poorly paid, often untrained, and high percentages admit to reluctantly seeking better paid work. This article reports on research into the impact of a Drama project on TAs in primary schools.

Read More »

Speech Bubbles and the Teaching Assistant: investigating the impact of a drama intervention on school support staff.

Teaching Assistants have become an essential part of primary school life over the last 30 years. They represent around one third of the overall school workforce, a higher percentage in primary school and nurseries. Despite training and qualification opportunities, most are relatively poorly paid, often untrained, and high percentages admit to reluctantly seeking better paid work. This article reports on research into the impact of a Drama project on TAs in primary schools.

Read More »

Book Reviews

British Black and Asian Shakespeareans: Integrating Shakespeare, 1966-2018

Shakespeare is at the heart of the British theatrical tradition, but the contribution of Ira Aldridge and the Shakespearean performers of African, African-Caribbean, south Asian and east Asian heritage who came after him is not widely known. Telling the story for the first time of how Shakespearean theatre in Britain was integrated from the 1960s to the 21st century, this is a timely and important account of that contribution.

Read More »

Crisis, Representation and Resilience: Perspectives on Contemporary British Theatre

A collection of incisive investigations into the ways that 21st-century British theatre works with – and through – crisis. It pays particular attention to the way in which writers and practitioners consider the ethical and social challenges of crisis.
Anchored in an interdisciplinary approach that draws from sociology, cultural theory, feminism, performance and philosophy, the book brings multi-faceted ideas into dialogue with the diverse aesthetics, practices and themes of a range of theatrical work produced in Britain since 2005.

Read More »

Identity, Culture, and the Science Performance, Volume 1: From the Lab to the Streets

Identity, Culture, and the Science Performance, Volume 1: From the Lab to the Streets is the first of two volumes dedicated to the diverse sociocultural work of science-oriented performance. A dynamic volume of scholarly essays, interviews with scientists and artists, and creative entries, it examines explicitly public-facing science performances that operate within and for specialist and non-specialist populations.

Read More »

Inclusivity and Equality in Performance Training: Teaching and Learning for Neuro and Physical Diversity

Inclusivity and Equality in Performance Training focuses on neuro and physical difference and dis/ability in the teaching of performance and associated studies. It offers 19 practitioners’ research-based teaching strategies, aimed to enhance equality of opportunity and individual abilities in performance education.

Challenging ableist models of teaching, the 16 chapters address the barriers that can undermine those with dis/ability or difference, highlighting how equality of opportunity can increase innovation and enrich the creative work.

Read More »

Performing Statecraft: The Postdiplomatic Theatre of Sovereigns, Citizens and States

The crafts of governance and diplomacy are spectacular, theatrical, and performative. Performing Statecraft investigates the performances of states, their leaders, and their citizens on an expanded field of the global arts of statecraft to consider the role of performance in the domestic and international affairs of states, and the interventions into global politics by artists, scholars, and activists.

Read More »

Romantic Comedy

‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ – so says Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for more than 2000 years the problems faced by young men and women fighting to find and keep an appropriate sexual partner have been a theatrical staple. This book explores the shapes that Romantic Comedy has assumed from Greek New Comedy via Shakespeare to the present. Changing social values have helped to redefine the genre’s traditional hetero-normativity, while the recent trend towards more fluid casting has opened up many romantic comedies to radical reinterpretations.

Read More »

Theatre in a Post-Truth World: Texts, Politics and Performance

This is the first book to examine how the concept and disagreements around post-truth have been explored in the world of theater and performance. It covers a wide spectrum of manifestations and expressions-from the plays of Caryl Churchill, Anne Washburn, and David Henry Hwang, to the inherent theatricality of press conferences, FBI interviews and protests that embrace the confusion created by post-truth rhetoric to muddy issues and deflect blame, to theatrical performance, where the nature of truth is challenged through staged visuals which run counter to what the audience hears, provoking a debate about where the truth actually lies.

Read More »

British Black and Asian Shakespeareans: Integrating Shakespeare, 1966-2018

Shakespeare is at the heart of the British theatrical tradition, but the contribution of Ira Aldridge and the Shakespearean performers of African, African-Caribbean, south Asian and east Asian heritage who came after him is not widely known. Telling the story for the first time of how Shakespearean theatre in Britain was integrated from the 1960s to the 21st century, this is a timely and important account of that contribution.

Read More »

Crisis, Representation and Resilience: Perspectives on Contemporary British Theatre

A collection of incisive investigations into the ways that 21st-century British theatre works with – and through – crisis. It pays particular attention to the way in which writers and practitioners consider the ethical and social challenges of crisis.
Anchored in an interdisciplinary approach that draws from sociology, cultural theory, feminism, performance and philosophy, the book brings multi-faceted ideas into dialogue with the diverse aesthetics, practices and themes of a range of theatrical work produced in Britain since 2005.

Read More »

Identity, Culture, and the Science Performance, Volume 1: From the Lab to the Streets

Identity, Culture, and the Science Performance, Volume 1: From the Lab to the Streets is the first of two volumes dedicated to the diverse sociocultural work of science-oriented performance. A dynamic volume of scholarly essays, interviews with scientists and artists, and creative entries, it examines explicitly public-facing science performances that operate within and for specialist and non-specialist populations.

Read More »

Inclusivity and Equality in Performance Training: Teaching and Learning for Neuro and Physical Diversity

Inclusivity and Equality in Performance Training focuses on neuro and physical difference and dis/ability in the teaching of performance and associated studies. It offers 19 practitioners’ research-based teaching strategies, aimed to enhance equality of opportunity and individual abilities in performance education.

Challenging ableist models of teaching, the 16 chapters address the barriers that can undermine those with dis/ability or difference, highlighting how equality of opportunity can increase innovation and enrich the creative work.

Read More »

Performing Statecraft: The Postdiplomatic Theatre of Sovereigns, Citizens and States

The crafts of governance and diplomacy are spectacular, theatrical, and performative. Performing Statecraft investigates the performances of states, their leaders, and their citizens on an expanded field of the global arts of statecraft to consider the role of performance in the domestic and international affairs of states, and the interventions into global politics by artists, scholars, and activists.

Read More »

Romantic Comedy

‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ – so says Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and for more than 2000 years the problems faced by young men and women fighting to find and keep an appropriate sexual partner have been a theatrical staple. This book explores the shapes that Romantic Comedy has assumed from Greek New Comedy via Shakespeare to the present. Changing social values have helped to redefine the genre’s traditional hetero-normativity, while the recent trend towards more fluid casting has opened up many romantic comedies to radical reinterpretations.

Read More »

Theatre in a Post-Truth World: Texts, Politics and Performance

This is the first book to examine how the concept and disagreements around post-truth have been explored in the world of theater and performance. It covers a wide spectrum of manifestations and expressions-from the plays of Caryl Churchill, Anne Washburn, and David Henry Hwang, to the inherent theatricality of press conferences, FBI interviews and protests that embrace the confusion created by post-truth rhetoric to muddy issues and deflect blame, to theatrical performance, where the nature of truth is challenged through staged visuals which run counter to what the audience hears, provoking a debate about where the truth actually lies.

Read More »

Editorial Board

Notes on Authors

Volume 14 Notes on Authors

Notes on Authors Jonathan Barnes is a National Teaching Fellow and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Canterbury Christ Church University. He has taught at every level of education in Africa and Asia and England. He now researches, lectures and writes on values, diversity and an inclusive curriculum for creativity, understanding and emotional engagement. James D.

Read More »

Volume 14 Notes on Authors

Notes on Authors Jonathan Barnes is a National Teaching Fellow and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Canterbury Christ Church University. He has taught at every level of education in Africa and Asia and England. He now researches, lectures and writes on values, diversity and an inclusive curriculum for creativity, understanding and emotional engagement. James D.

Read More »

National Drama

Join us

Join the UK’s leading professional association for drama teachers and theatre educators. Membership includes free copies of Drama magazine plus regular E-newsletters.
Scroll to Top