Race & representation in applied theatre: walking a fine line to salvage empathy & creative imagination

ABSTRACT This article examines the evolving nature of how race and difference are represented in creative applied theatre work in classroom and community-based settings. The author uses several examples of performances and workshops she’s attended to ask important questions that point to the tensions percolating in our discipline around who gets to tell a story, how, and in what way this telling shapes perceptions and notions of the Other. At the heart of this inquiry is a desire to salvage creativity, play, and imagination in an environment that is increasingly fraught with cancel culture, virtue signalling, and identity politics.