Intervention plan
Part of UAL social purpose is to educate creatives that leave with ethical and inclusive practices. A big part of my role at Wimbledon College of Arts is guiding the students through the process of producing their theatre productions. This is an opportunity to intervene and encourage them to reflect, so me and the rest of the theatre technical team can support them in developing more inclusive projects. Making them active participants in voicing how they believe theatre can improve to include more people and facilitating sessions where they can trial ideas in a safe environment.
To start this process, I’ve developed a 2-hour workshop. I will trial it with a small group of second year Contemporary Theatre Performance students. Asking them to reflect on their own identities and how they might be connected to their creative practice.
The workshop is structured in 2 parts “ME AND MY PRACTICE” and “MY PRACRICE AND MY AUDIENCE”.
We will be using specific projects they are currently developing as part of their unit 9. Enquiring why they are choosing to explore the themes and concepts in their plays, through a series of exercises followed by discussions. During the session we will also look at their projects from the perspective of the audience. Reflecting on how the public might encounter the work and discussing ways to make their productions more inclusive.
I have worked facilitating creative workshops with different communities across the UK. including care homes, organizations for individuals with mental health support needs, schools and youth centers. I feel confident in leading a workshop that allows the students to question themselves in a supportive environment.
This is a pilot project, the feedback I receive from it will help me develop it further and implement it more formally in the production process for shows presented at Wimbledon College of Arts.
Feedback from Peer Meeting
-Incorporating collaboration and how to treat collaborators inclusively
– Will 2 hours be enough time to cover everything.
-Having a shorter workshop might make it better and more focused.
– Having more than one session, and breaking it into 3 sections so we can look things more in depth.
-Challenge of not just ending up with people sharing their life stories and not being able to get to the aims of the workshop.
2 responses to “Intervention”
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Thank you Paula for sharing your proposed intervention, which involves the delivery of a 2-hour workshop for Contemporary Theatre Performance students during Unit 9.
One of the strengths of your proposal is that, by encouraging students to think inclusively about their practice, there is the longer-term potential to foster inclusion in theatre and performance more widely.
I’m curious about whether this workshop will be optional or required, and how it aligns with the rest of Unit 9. Will this be the first-time students are considering issues of inclusivity? Are there any areas you will be focusing on, given how broad this area might be in a theatre context?
You’ve made reference to students ‘trialling ideas in a safe environment’, and I think it’s great that you’re already considering safety and wellbeing in this context: discussions about identity can be challenging. What are your plans for creating a ‘safer space’, given the short timeframe of the workshop? It’s important to take an intersectional approach, and this might be a challenge in such a short time frame? Do you have any thoughts about how to manage any tensions/difficulties/disagreements that emerge while exploring the themes and concepts of their work.
Finally, please find some further questions/thoughts as provocations to support the development of your intervention plan:
– Be prepared to articulate why you have chosen your intervention, what inequities it responds to, and what the evidence base is for its importance. I recommend using dashboards.arts.ac.uk to look at relevant data for Contemporary Theatre Performance, such as awarding gaps, retention/continuation gaps, and NSS data.
– When you get to your reflective report, you will need to articulate about your own positionality in relation to your intervention, so do keep this in mind throughout the intervention’s development. How does your positionality influence the choices you make, and what potential biases may you need to mitigate against?
– Remember to draw upon relevant literature to support the rationale for your intervention, using Harvard referencing.
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Thank you so much for your feedback. As a technician, I often feel quite powerless to create real change within such a large institution. I’m frequently pushed back by the lack of budget to support making the theatre more inclusive. This is why I believe that if the push comes from the students, there’s a better chance of management implementing changes.
The workshop will be required, and I’m very lucky to have the support of the academic lead from the Contemporary Theatre course, who is keen to formally incorporate this type of workshop, as it aligns well with the unit. I talk more about this in my reflective essay.
Managing discomfort and difficult topics within the group will definitely be a challenge. However, the fact that this is a small group should help, along with setting the tone through an initial conversation. These students already know each other very well, so I’m hoping that their existing relationships will encourage kindness and support. I’ve also had experience in past workshops where tensions arose, and I was able to de-escalate them. If that happens here, I hope to guide the energy back to a space of empathy and care.
I’ll do my best to reflect on and respond to your provocations in my essay.
Thanks again for your very helpful feedback.
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