Intercultural bridges in teenagers' theatrical events : performing self and constructing cultural identity through a creative drama process

The overriding aim of this drama educational case study is to deepen the understanding of meaning making in a creative intercultural youth theatre process and to examine it in the context of the 10th European Children's TheatreEncounter. The research task is to give a theoretical description of some key features of a creative drama process as the basis for theory about meaning makingin physical theatre. The first task is to illuminate the culture-historical connections of the multilayered practice of the EDERED-association. The second taskis to analyse and interpret theatrical meaning making. The ethnographical research site is regarded as a theatrical event. The analysis of the theatrical eventis divided into four segments: cultural contexts, contextual theatricality, theatrical playing and playing culture. These segments are connected with four research questions: What are the cultural contexts of a creative drama process? How can the organisation of the Encounter, genres, aesthetic codes and perception ofcodes be seen to influence the lived experiences of the participants? What are some of the key phases and characteristics in a creative practice? What kind of cultural learning can be interpreted from the performance texts? The interpretative question concerns identity and community (re)construction. How are the categories, `community´ and `child´ constructed in the Encounter culture? In this drama educational case study the research material (transcribed interviews, coded questionnaire answers, participant drawings, videotaped process text and performance texts) are examined in a multi-method analysis in the meta-theoretical framework of Dewey's naturalistic pragmatism. A three-dimensional research interest through a combination of lived experiences, social contexts and cultural-aesthetical practices compared with drama-educational practices required the methodological project of cultural studies. Furthermore, the critical interpretation of cultural texts is divided into three levels of analyses which are called description, structural analysis and theoretical interpretation. Dialogic validity (truthfulness, self-reflexivity and polyvocality) is combined with contextual validity (sensitivity to social context and awareness of historicity) and with deconstructive validity (awareness of the social discourses). My research suggests that itis possible, by means of physical theatre, to construct symbolic worlds where questions about intercultural identity and multilingual community are examined and where provisional answers are constructed in social interaction.

Educación intercultural, diversidad y creatividad en el aula a través del teatro: los títeres

La educación intercultural y el tratamiento de la diversidad en la escuela son sin duda algunos de los aspectos de la educación sobre los que más se ha escrito en las últimas décadas. Con el presente trabajo pretendemos hacer un recorrido por los planteamientos más actuales en la educación intercultural, así como la profundización en la idea de creatividad y en el trabajo colaborativo como formas eficaces de afrontar el reto que nos plantea la diferencia. Finalmente, propondremos literatura, concretamente el teatro de títeres, como herramienta didáctica óptima para el trabajo intercultural en todos los niveles educativos, partiendo de la valoración positiva de la diversidad en sus múltiples significados.

Raun Raun Theatre, Goroka

View to theatre from landscape.

Raun Raun Theatre, Goroka

View to theatre from landscape.

Raun Raun Theatre, Goroka

View to theatre from landscape.

Roof structure internal, Raun Raun Theatre, Goroka

View of carved king post.

Seating area interior, Raun Raun Theatre, Goroka

View of seating area from theatre interior.

Ceiling interior, Raun Raun Theatre, Goroka

View of carved king post from interior.

Ceiling interior, Raun Raun Theatre, Goroka

View to underside of thatched roof with king post and bracing.

Australia’s Lily Brayton: Performer and theatre artist

Recognition is the aim of this account of an artist who is now remembered largely for her beauty, her wide iconic fame achieved by mass distribution of her image via photography and postcards, and her professional association with a internationally prominent producer who was also her husband. It is however a historically situated study, confining itself to readings of the kind of theatrical, social and cultural work performed by Brayton's presence in a rapidly-modernising Australia during the period between Federation in 1901 and the first World War, which event marks a disjuncture in the patterns of entertainment and cultural discourse in the new nation. Pre-war Australian theatre and vaudeville managements competed vigorously to secure the most acclaimed artists, seeing it as a kind of service and duty to boost their country's prestige along with their own coffers. Meanwhile, local playwrights and producers promoted a burgeoning repertoire of Australian dramas and films which played alongside the imported products in a complex network of cultural codes and affects.