Not Your Father's Theatre
This week we add a new resource to the list of "Search"
sites (an area I've used less for search engines than for sites
that maintain lists of links to theatre oriented pages): The "Applied and Interactive
Theater Guide," created and maintained by State University
of New York Institute of Technology at Utica professor Joel Plotkin.
According to Professor Plotkin (who chairs his university's
department of technical communications), the site is intended
as "a resource for those who use theater techniques for other
or more than arts or entertainment purposes, and for those whose
theater styles incorporate other than traditional presentation
styles." This would include everything from improvisation
to theatre-in-education to psychodrama, and the site is open to
all of it. With such an open intent the organization of the site
is of necessity in a constant state of flux. It's main and currently
largest area is for sites devoted to:
Community issues - devoted to theatre groups aimed
at particular population segments or specific issues (regardless
of the techniques used by the company), including such topics
as AIDS, disabilities, the elderly, human rights, and substance
abuse. The area shows links by company (or production) as well
as by focus.
The rest of the site is organized by theatrical techniques
or philosophies employed by the listees, such as:
Psychodrama and Sociodrama- primarily an area for
announcements of the national association for psychodramatists,
the American Association
for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. Psychodrama was
created by Dr. Jacob L. Moreno as a sort of psychotherapy through
theatrical exploration; sociodrama expands those techniques to
group situations.
Training and Development - lists companies who use
theatrical techniques in the corporate, institutional, or organizational
environment to address a number of issues effecting employers
and their employees, such as diversity, harassment, disabilities,
leadership, co-working, and gender.
Drama Therapy - which is actually an entire sub-site
devoted to providing information about Drama Therapy, a technique
which, according to the site, uses "drama/theater process
to achieve the therapeutic goals of symptom relief, emotional
and physical intergration, and personal growth."
Boal/Theater of the Oppressed - which combines sociodrama,
improvisation, and aspects of Berthold Brecht's concept of Epic
Theater.
Playback Theatre - uses improvisational techniques
to re-enact episodes from the lives of their audience members.
A well organized and often beautiful site, chock full of information,
a visit would be well worth the time for those interested in something
different than what the traditional theatre has to serve up.
C U @ the Theatre!
Originally published at Suite101.com
Theatre,
3/31/98