Communities, Performance and Practice

This book examines how a predominantly negative view of community has presented a challenge to critical analysis of community performance practice. The concept of community as a form of class-based solidarity has been hollowed out by postmodernism’s questioning of grand narratives and poststructuralism’s celebration of difference. Alongside the critique of a notion of community has been a critical re-signification of community, following the thinking of philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy who conceives of community not as common being but as being-in-common. The concept of community as being-in-common generates questions that have been taken up by feminist geographers, J.K. Gibson-Graham, in theorising a post-capitalist approach to community-based development. These questions and approaches guide the analyses in researched case studies of community performance practice. The book revises theoretical debates that have defined the field of community theatre and performance. It asks how the critical re-signification of community aligns with these debates and, at the same time, opens new modes of critical analysis of community theatre and performance practice.

“Communities, Performance and Practice: Enacting Communities will be a welcomed addition to courses in applied theatre, community theatre, and community engagement, as well as scholarship around participation and ethical communities of practice. Dr. Kerrie Schaefer thoughtfully disrupts binary thinking about participation, visibility, and affirmation, re-signifying relationships between community and performance. Her case studies offer much needed insight into theatre practices and performance, presenting rich descriptions and theoretical analysis that invite readers to reflect on, if not re-imagine, their own relationships to community. This book is beautiful and critical in form, content, and context.”

- Dr. Megan Alrutz, Associate Chair, Department of Theatre & Dance, University of Texas at Austin, USA

Kerrie Schaefer has a PhD in Performance Studies from the University of Sydney, Australia. Before relocating to the UK in 2007, she was Lecturer in Drama at the University of Newcastle, NSW. She is currently an Associate Professor in Drama at the University of Exeter, UK.