Description
Book SynopsisThe title of this book, Refugee Performance, suggests there is a constituency of practices that might be unified under a definite term or god forbid to propose a new field of study. This is far from the intentions of the collection. This collection has grown out of an interest in performance and theatre in sites of war and the impact of conflict on diasporic communities. The chapters represent stories from a range of countries and war contexts, including Iraq, Thailand, Burma, Uganda, Palestine, Croatia, Serbia, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Trade Review'A commendable resource'
-- Choice by A. H. Fabos
'Editor Michael Balfour collates seventeen chapters which offer a comprehensive overview of the types of performance practices that can emerge from areas of displacement, and liminal or temporary spaces ... Its strength lies in this multi-regional approach'
-- Studies in Theatre and Performance, Dawn Fowler
'[the book] presents an impressive array of perspectives on refugee performance by social workers, folklorists, writers, lawyers, theatre artists, and refugees themselves.'
-- S.E. Wilmer, Journal Contemporary Theatre Review
'This book is the first comprehensive collection of essays on the practices and criticism of refugee performance. It presents a much needed wide range of reflections and analyses on refugee performance and procedural experiences from diverse approaches and regions. Through the lenses it provides, the book examines the aesthetics of contextualised performances, creative tensions and the dynamics of theatre as a healing space.'
-- Jessica A. Kaahwa, South African Theatre Journal
Table of ContentsChapter 1: Iraqi Memories: A Personal and Poetic Exploration of Homecomings, Departures and Arrivals from a Theatre Director Who Fled Iraq in 1987 and Returns Home Again – Niz Jabour
Chapter 2: On Stitches – Michael Balfour and Nina Woodrow
Chapter 3: Health Theatre in a Hmong Refugee Camp: Performance, Communication, and Culture – Dwight Conquergood
Chapter 4: Play Extract: Forged in Fire – A performance text created by Okello Kelo Sam, Laura Edmondson, and Robert Ajwang
Chapter 5: Narrative Theatre as an Interactive Community Approach to Mobilizing Collective Action in Northern Uganda – Yvonne Sliep, Kaethe Weingarten, and Andrew Gilbert
Chapter 6: Marketing Trauma and the Theatre of War in Northern Uganda – Laura Edmondson
Chapter 7: Encounters in the Aida Refugee Camp in Palestine: Travel Notes on Attending Alrowwad Theatre’s Production of Handala (2011) – Rand T. Hazou
Chapter 8: Rape as War Strategy: A Drama from Croatia – Sanja Nikčević
Chapter 9: Far Away, So Close: Psychosocial and Theatre Activities with Serbian Refugees – Guglielmo Schininà
Chapter 10: Play Extract: Refugees – Zlatko Topčic´ (Translated into English by Davor Diklić)
Chapter 11: ‘Politics Begins as Ethics’: Levinasian Ethics and Australian Performance Concerning Refugees – Tom Burvill
Chapter 12: Refugee Performance: Encounters with Alterity – Michael Balfour
Chapter 13: Repeat Performance: Dancing DiDinga with the Lost Boys of Southern Sudan – Felecia Faye McMahon
Chapter 14: Theatre as a Healing Space: Ping Chong’s Children of War – Yuko Kurahashi
Chapter 15: Drama and Citizenship Education: Tensions of Creativity, Content and Cash – Sarah Woodland and Rob Lachowicz
Chapter 16: Inclusive Democracy: A Consideration of Playback Theatre with Refugee and Asylum Seekers in Australia – Rea Dennis
Chapter 17: Hospitable Stages and Civil Listening: Being an Audience for Participatory Refugee Theatre – Alison Jeffers
