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Redefining Audiences Kathleen Gallagher Why Theatre Matters: Urban Youth, Engagement, and a Pedagogy of the Real. U of Toronto $29.95 Jordan Tannahill Theatre of the Unimpressed: In Search of Vital Drama. Coach House $14.95
Reviewed by Lourdes Arciniega
Given urban youth apathy, Kathleen Gallagher argues for the value of drama as a tool for students to reassert their identity and reconnect with their community. In an extensive and in-depth five-year study of four schools in Toronto, Boston, Taipei, and Lucknow, Gallagher and her team interview students and teachers to chronicle how theatre courses can improve and change students' lives and their outlook on their sometimes uninspiring future.
Often students' confrontational attitudes towards theatre productions or their lack of interest in performing stems from ingrained prejudices and lack of opportunity to communicate their fears, desires, and ambitions. However, through theatre-making activities, students interact with fellow students with whom they would not otherwise consider fraternizing. This collaborative engagement, rather than becoming confrontational, becomes enlightening, as each side discovers and supports others' ideas in achieving a common goal. Second- and third-year students, for example, practiced Verbatim Theatre, "a form of documentary theatre using the...