How Theatre Educates: Convergences and Counterpoints with Artists, Scholars, and Advocates (review)

How Theatre Educates argues that despite its academic, aesthetic, or economic contexts, drama's power lies in its ability to teach. As North American scholars have many US-based interrogations of theatre's pedagogic potential, editors Gallagher and Booth solicited case studies from Canadian performers, educators, and activists. While the anthology preserves the specificity of Canadian contributions to debates over theatre and society, its contributions are also relevant to readers across the border.

Many of the collection's strongest essays come from theatre artists. The editors solicited contributions from the mainstream to the avant-garde, from playwrights John Murrell (Waiting for the Parade) and Ann-Marie McDonald (Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet), Necessary Angel Theatre Company and Stratford Festival director Richard Rose, to Sky Gilbert (artistic director of Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, a company which produces new work by gay playwrights). Gilbert's interview exemplifies the artists' contributions. Discussing his experience, he explores how gay theatre can educate both straight audiences—offering "details of gay life and gay culture which audiences find surprising and interesting" and gay audiences—"giving them role models" (185). For Gilbert, the audience's emotional experience encourages them to unconsciously confront the unfamiliar and consciously reflect on the ideas of the play (184). Though Gilbert speaks specifically of gay, "fringe," Canadian theatre, his comments are valid for artists in different geographical and political venues.

The collection also includes essays by educators, including drama in education, acting, and dramatic literature teachers, who detail challenges of theatre and/in education. Cornelia Hoogland, associate professor at the University of Western Ontario, conducted research through a year-long immersion with a local kindergarten class. Hoogland, who identifies herself as an eco-feminist, aims to lay "a groundwork for a dramatic program ... that enables people to make aesthetic connections between themselves and the land they inhabit" (213). Her essay succeeds in providing a framework for other educators, and though Hoogland might hope its lessons in adapting and implementing creative dramatics would lead necessarily to an eco-feminist understanding of the local environment, the value of her work goes beyond her immediate context. This is one of the strongest essays in the anthology, combining practical information with a political agenda.

Most contributors are intent on defending the Canadian theatre heritage, and some polemics urge against adopting US production and academic standards. Though traditionally supported by federal and provincial grants, as audiences shrink and budgets tighten, Canadian "alternative" theatre artists and educators are increasingly concerned about preserving artistic and intellectual integrity. For example, playwright Jason Sherman notes an alarming shift in the kinds of theatre supported by audiences: Toronto crowds flock to Broadway imports, such as the ubiquitous Lion King. At the same time, Ontario professor Domenico Pietropaolo remarks that though university drama programs are increasingly subject to the charge they are "irrelevant or even superfluous" because they ignore the commercial (59), they must continue to educate both audience members and artists. Others are more optimistic. John Gilbert, actor and instructor at the University of Toronto, argues for theatre's continued efficacy in a commercialized, mediatized arts environment. "Used properly, used educatively," Gilbert argues, "drama/theatre creates a crucial space for scrutiny of the accepted and taken-for-granted" that US-influenced television, film, and even "commercial" theatre posit as ideological norms (106).

Many of the essays demonstrate how a passion for theatre can inform a professional (and theoretical) trajectory. Because the anthology relies heavily on case studies of and personal reactions to theatrical and classroom events, it exhibits a tension between allowing embodied knowledges to inform practice and soliciting the kind of navel-gazing that precludes serious interrogation. Including contributors from a range of theatre practices, with a variety of educational, artistic, and political viewpoints, is both the book's greatest strength and its...