ABOUT THIS BOOK

Exploring theater works created for, by, and with refugees, this hybrid collection of essays combines newly commissioned scholarly work with examples of writing by refugees themselves. These varied contributions illuminate performances that range from theater in Thai refugee camps to site-specific works staged in a run-down immigrant community in the United Kingdom. An exciting addition to the growing field of applied theater, Refugee Performance provides inspiring insight into the resilience and creativity of artists responding to one of the most critical issues of our time.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Michael Balfour is chair of the Centre for the Arts in Development Communication. His previous books include Performance: In Place of War and Drama as Social Intervention.

REVIEWS

"Including previously published pieces and commissioned works, this handy collection explores aspects of theater and performance 'for, by, and with refugees' in areas of war including Iraq, Burma, Palestine, Croatia, Serbia, and places of settlement in Australia, the UK, and the US. The book includes a range of material about and approaches to the subject matter and is presented 'dialogically' with various chapters clustering around specific subjects and themes. . . . A commendable resource for those wishing to learn more about the uses of performance. Recommended."

— Choice

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Permissions
Illustrations
Author Biographies
Preface

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
2. On Stitches
      Michael Balfour and Nina Woodrow
3. Health Theatre in a Hmong Refugee Camp: Performance, Communication, and Culture
      Dwight Conquergood
4. Play Extract: Forged in Fire
      A performance text created by Okello Kelo Sam, Laura Edmondson, and Robert Ajwang’
5. Narrative Theatre as an Interactive Community Approach to Mobilizing Collective Action in Northern Uganda
      Yvonne Sliep, Kaethe Weingarten, and Andrew Gilbert
6. Marketing Trauma and the Theatre of War in Northern Uganda
      Laura Edmondson
7. Encounters in the Aida Refugee Camp in Palestine: Travel Notes on Attending Alrowwad Theatre’s Production of Handala (2011)
      Rand T. Hazou
8. Rape as War Strategy: A Drama from Croatia
      Sanja Nikcevic
9. Far Away, So Close: Psychosocial and Theatre Activities with Serbian Refugees
      Guglielmo Schininà
10. Play Extract: Refugees
      Zlatko Topcic (Translated into English by Davor Diklic)
11. ‘Politics Begins as Ethics’: Levinasian Ethics and Australian Performance Concerning Refugees
      Tom Burvill
12. Refugee Performance: Encounters with Alterity
      Michael Balfour
13. Repeat Performance: Dancing DiDinga with the Lost Boys of Southern Sudan
      Felecia Faye McMahon
14. Theatre as a Healing Space: Ping Chong’s Children of War
      Yuko Kurahashi
15. Drama and Citizenship Education: Tensions of Creativity, Content and Cash
      Sarah Woodland and Rob Lachowicz
16. Inclusive Democracy: A Consideration of Playback Theatre with Refugee and Asylum Seekers in Australia
      Rea Dennis
17. Hospitable Stages and Civil Listening: Being an Audience for Participatory Refugee Theatre
      Alison Jeffers

Index