• Home
  • About Brittney
    • About Brittney
    • CV
    • Publications and Awards
    • Recent News
  • Teaching
    • Philosophy & Aesthetics
    • Courses Taught
  • Applied Research
    • About Applied Research
    • Directing
    • Performer/Playwright
    • Devised Works
    • Conferences and Festivals
  • Outreach & Service
    • Academic & Comm Service
    • Workshops
  • Evals & Reviews
  • Contact
  • More
    • Home
    • About Brittney
      • About Brittney
      • CV
      • Publications and Awards
      • Recent News
    • Teaching
      • Philosophy & Aesthetics
      • Courses Taught
    • Applied Research
      • About Applied Research
      • Directing
      • Performer/Playwright
      • Devised Works
      • Conferences and Festivals
    • Outreach & Service
      • Academic & Comm Service
      • Workshops
    • Evals & Reviews
    • Contact
  • Home
  • About Brittney
    • About Brittney
    • CV
    • Publications and Awards
    • Recent News
  • Teaching
    • Philosophy & Aesthetics
    • Courses Taught
  • Applied Research
    • About Applied Research
    • Directing
    • Performer/Playwright
    • Devised Works
    • Conferences and Festivals
  • Outreach & Service
    • Academic & Comm Service
    • Workshops
  • Evals & Reviews
  • Contact

We are all actors: being a citizen is not living in society, it is changing it.


Augusto Boal, Founder of Theatre of the Oppressed

Primary Applied Research Areas

DIRECTING
PERFORMER/PLAYWRIGHT
DEVISED THEATRE MAKER

About my Applied Creative research

Research Focus

Embodying Resistance Through Narrative-Based Theatre and Devised Community-engaged Performance


Governing Questions

  • How can performance and narrative-based storytelling be used as a vessel for social resilience and resistance?
  • Can this type of embodied argumentation through applied theatre been seen as an alternative way to storytelling and evolving how narratives are shared, remembered, and perhaps incite a dialogue in promoting social justice reform and change without appropriation? 


Modes of Inquiry

Community Engagement/Archival research, script development, improvisation, and devising a piece


Ideological/ Methodological Approach

Theatre of the Oppressed, Augusto Boal

Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue, Michael Rohd 

Community Engagement Theater methods/practices, Cornerstone Theatre Company

Statement of Research

Feeding my aesthetic and artistic efforts, my research is supported by the practice of PaR (Performance as Research). My research focus: Solo Performance, Devised Theatre, Theatre for Social Change, and Performance as Activism. 


Applied Theatre or Community-Engaged Theatre Makers employ a wide range of theatre practices grounded in the attention to provoke or shape social change. As a practitioner, I start many of my classes and performative projects with the following questions: what is the story, how can I best tell the story to the audience?how can this work serve the community from within? My artistic praxis is divided into 4 parts: 1) concept, 2) creation, 3) performance, and 4) documentation.


"Applied Theatre is an umbrella term for the use of theatrical practices and creativity that take participants and audience members further than mainstream theatre, that is often in response to conventional people with real life stories" (Prentki).  I adapted a skill set and practice that presents an open forum for both theatrical and non-theatrical individuals to explore their own artistic curiosities using Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, and Improvisational techniques. By providing resources and exercises for utilizing one’s own distinctive histories and experiences, I believe we can foster a community of artists built on confidence and artistic integrity. 


Through my research, I have devised ensemble and solo-based works exploring the adverse effects of violence/injustices in social media on the personal psyche and how narrative-based storytelling is used as a vessel for social resilience and redemption. These projects are called ‘Drama to Drama: From the Headlines to the Stage’. Specific topics explored, but not limited to, are Racial Injustice, Gender Equality, Domestic Violence Awareness, and Diversity/ Inclusion. Most of my projects are ‘works in progress’ meaning that all the variables are consistently shifting throughout the entirety of the project. All goals obtained supplement in the production, not the final product. The completed creation, I firmly believe, is secondary to the journey taken in collaboration and development. All theatre is meant to be personal and political. 


Augusto Boal says “those who try to separate theatre from politics try to lead us into error.” The basis of my research allows individuals or a specific community organization/entity to create art that represents a state of change for revelation/resistance. Theatre and the performing arts teach society about itself and points out the attitudes and mindsets of current society. It can be a tool used to educate people about their current conditions.     


My creative research is applicable in three areas: directing, performer/playwright, and devised works

Artistic Praxis

1) Concept

  • Have a question/leading fact/inquiry about a particular issue within a specific community or entity. 
  • Develop Research focus/Governing question(s)
  • Archival inspiration: newspaper, publications, etc.


2) Creation

  • Create/identify framework device: Autobiographical, Biographical, or Editorial Material
  • Devising (rehearsing towards a “finished” project) 
  • Script development or movement-based material
  • Identifying the logistical parameters of the project: length of project, location, target audience, etc.


3) Performance

  • Final performance/product is the NOT the final product, it is an outcome of the process


4) Documentation

  • Archival Materials: Text, Videos, Photos, Feedback, etc
  • Reflection and Catalog: Writing/Journals, Recordings
  • Audience Interaction and Feedback: Quantitative and Qualitative--assessing show and process' impact and reception; surveys, before & after reflection statements

Featured Research presentations

"Here Us Out": Methods of Theatre Performance as Activism

Presented as part of the 'Arts in the Library' series hosted by Old Dominion University Libraries. 


Topics Discussed:

  • using performance as a "tool" to challenge existing systems of power, and to illuminate causes, issues, and people who are often oppressed, undermined, or underserved.
  • how to cultivate a more collaborative and creative global society from the ground up
  • defining new interactive tools that merge theatrical performance, community building, and conflict resolution

Performance and Protest: The Art of Theatre as Activism

Presented as part of the 'Arts in the Library' series hosted by Old Dominion University Libraries. 


Topics Discussed: 

  • brief exploration of the history of activist theatre; 
  • performance-based strategies employed by activist organizations and social movements; and 
  • how performing artists have taken on social issues and engaged in activism by devising performance-based intervention

****

I utilize the practices and criterion set forth by governing tenure and promotion guidelines of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). ATHE serves as a strong advocate for maintaining that system through the establishing and sustaining of tenure-track and tenured positions for faculty in the field of theatre and performance studies.


Copyright © 2023 Brittney Simone Harris - All Rights Reserved.

  • Home
  • About Brittney
  • Recent News
  • Philosophy & Aesthetics
  • About Applied Research
  • Workshops
  • Contact

Powered by GoDaddy