Activating Theatre: people participating, performing politics

A practice-based symposium examining how theatre and performance work to change people and society

Tuesday 6 March 2012, Stage@leeds Building, University of Leeds

Members of the Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications and the Faculty of Medicine and Health have come together with arts practitioners to explore the role performance has played, and can play, in changing the world. Through a day of workshops, presentations, discussions and performance we will explore three main themes:

Theatre/performance and communities Theatre/performance and political activism Theatre/performance and health

Participants will be invited to consider the interplay between these areas, share their own practice, investigate cross-generational issues and think about how the past can inform our present and future.

Contributors include:

Red Ladder, the 40 year old theatre company with a radical history http://www.redladder.co.uk/ Roland Muldoon, co-founder of Cartoon Archetypical Slogan Theatre (CAST) and co-founder of the revived Hackney Empire.

Pandemonium Theatre Collective, working in street theatre and community pantomime as a vehicle for local concerns.

North West Spanner, pioneering political theatre company from the 70’s, using different approaches today.

Katie Beswick, a researcher in the representation of council estates in live performance.

Evette Hunkins-Hutchinson, using drama in mental health settings in the British Caribbean community and village communities in Malawi.

Delia Muir, practitioner and researcher of simulation performance in health Beth Shaw, co-director of Domestic Theatre, a long running and unique practice of participatory community theatre in the UK

JOIN US!

Contribute to our exhibition

Symposium participants are invited to contribute to our exhibition space. We are looking for any artwork, photographs or artefacts relevant to the symposium’s topic. For more information contact Delia Muir d.p.muir@leeds.ac.uk

Registrations

To register go to http://tinyurl.com/activating-theatre. Registration fee £40, limited free student places available.

Activating Theatre is supported by the Just press publishing initiative

www.justpress.co.uk