Poking the WASP Nest: Young People, Applied Theatre, and Education about Race

This innovative project wrapped research around a youth theatre project. Young people of colour and from refugee backgrounds developed a sustained provocation for the people of Geelong, a large regional centre in Australia. The packed public performance—at the biggest venue in town—challenged locals to rethink assumptions. The audience response was insightful and momentous. The companion workshops for schools had profound impact with adolescent audiences. Internationally, this book connects with artistic, educational, and research communities, offering a substantial contribution to understandings of racism. This book is a provocative, transdisciplinary meditation on race, culture, the arts and change.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Notes on Authors PART 1: Setting the Scene 1 Tackling Racism: Community Theatre, Critical Inquiry, and Epistemic Disobedience  1 Laying the Conceptual Foundations  2 Placing This Study  3 The Structure of This Book 2 Researching from Somewhere: Our Personal and Collective Positioning  1 Alison Baker  2 André de Quadros  3 Dave Kelman  4 Christopher Sonn  5 Julie White 3 Crafting an Approach across and through Difference  1 Bringing Applied Theatre and Research Together  2 Working across, with, and through Diffference as Intra-Action  3 Methodological Approach  4 Conclusion PART 2: Applied Theatre: The Arts Education Project 4 Looking Inward: 6 Hours in Geelong as Process  1 Who Were the Actors?  2 Applied Theatre  3 6 Hours in Geelong  4 Devising Process  5 Characters  6 Authoring Process  7 Play Excerpts  8 Conclusion 5 Looking Outward: How Community Audiences Viewed 6 Hours in Geelong  1 Geelong after Dark  2 School Interactive Performances  3 The Community Performance Events  4 Conclusion PART 3: Theorisation and Perspectives: Interdisciplinary Discussion 6 Applied Theatre: The Practitioner’s Dilemma  1 White Privilege, Race, Power Relations, and Positionalities  2 The Slippery Nature of Artistic Meaning in Context  3 Individual and Group Identity  4 The Nature of the Challenge  5 Processes and Practices for Negotiating Intersections in Making 6 Hours in Geelong  6 Group Authorship  7 A Provisional Offfering 7 “People Don’t Know Our Story”: Exposing Coloniality through Counter-Storytelling  1 Critical Studies of Race, Decoloniality, and Stories  2 Unpacking Stories through the Lens of Coloniality  3 Young People Negotiating Coloniality in Everyday Lives  4 Conclusion 8 Essentialism and Cosmopolitan WEIRDness  1 WEIRDness, Essentialism, and Coloniality  2 Entanglements of Racism, Theatre, and Theory  3 Analysis of Racism and Identity in 6 Hours in Geelong  4 Embracing Complexity PART 4: So What? Implications for Practice 9 Schooling, Racism, and Powerful Conversations  1 Context for Conceptualisation  2 Schools as the Site for Discussions about Race  3 Conceptual Framework for Powerful Conversations  4 How Teachers Can Overcome Obstacles  5 Conclusion 10 Community Arts: Politics and Privilege  1 Community Arts in Context  2 Politics and Privilege in Community Arts Practice  3 Race as Context for Practice  4 Implications 11 Aftermath and Afterwards Appendix: 6 Hours in Geelong Script References Index