Digital Storytelling, Applied Theatre, & Youth

Digital Storytelling, Applied Theatre, & Youth argues that theatre artists must re-imagine how and why they facilitate performance practices with young people. Rapid globalization and advances in media and technology continue to change the ways that people engage with and understand the world around them. Drawing on pedagogical, aesthetic, and theoretical threads of applied theatre and media practices, this book presents practitioners, scholars, and educators with innovative approaches to devising and performing digital stories. This book offers the first comprehensive examination of digital storytelling as an applied theatre practice. Alrutz explores how participatory and mediated performance practices can engage the wisdom and experience of youth; build knowledge about self, others and society; and invite dialogue and deliberation with audiences. In doing so, she theorizes digital storytelling as a site of possibility for critical and relational practices, feminist performance pedagogies, and alliance building with young people.

Megan Alrutz is Assistant Professor of Applied Theatre and Community Engagement at The University of Texas, Austin.

Chapter One: Digital Storytelling as an Applied Theatre Praxis POWER ON THE LINE: PERSONAL NARRATIVES MOVE PEOPLE GENERATIVE INTERSECTIONS: DIGITAL STORYTELLING AND APPLIED THEATRE DIGITAL STORYTELLING: A BRIEF OVERVIEW APPLIED DRAMA AND THEATRE: A BRIEF OVERVIEW UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: INTEGRATING APPLIED THEATRE AND DIGITAL STORYTELLING DIGITAL STORYTELLING AS AN APPLIED THEATRE PRAXIS MEDIATED REPRESENTATIONS: BENEFITS OF AN INTEGRATED PRAXIS ATTENDING TO YOUTH STORIES: PREPARATION, PRODUCTION AND PRESENTATION Chapter Two: Engaging the Wisdom and Experience of Youth TAKING YOUTH CREATIVE PRACTICES SERIOUSLY CRITICALLY ENGAGED PEDAGOGY AND PRACTICE INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE POETIC DEVISING AND AGENTIVE SELVES Chapter Three: Building Knowledge About Self, Others, & Society SOCIAL AND RELATIONAL PRACTICES STORIES AS KNOWLEDGE AND PERSPECTIVE MAKING MEANING ABOUT SELF, OTHERS, AND SOCIETY DOUBLE DIAMOND DESIGN AND DELIBERATION POSSIBILITIES FOR KNOWLEDGE AND BELONGING TOWARD NEW KNOWLEDGE Chapter Four: Inviting Dialogue and Deliberation with Audiences SOMETHING IS HAPPENING HERE AFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENTS DRAMATURGY OF AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION: FRAMEWORKS FOR DIALOGUE AND DELIBERATION EXTENDING ALLIANCES WITH INVITED AUDIENCES Chapter Five: Performing Possibility ARE YOU PART OF A MOVEMENT? TOWARD COALITIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS POLITICS OF PERFORMANCE THE PROMISE OF POSSIBILITY