Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Theatre in Education in Britain: Origins, Development and Influence by Roger Wooster
Theatre in Education in Britain is divided into three parts, metaphorically titled—“Roots,” “Fruits,” and “Shoots?”—flanked by a helpful list of abbreviations and a chronological table. With this text, Roger Wooster brings light and specificity to the evolution of theatre in education (TIE) as a practice, as a field, and as an art form “born out of an expectation of social reform, an implicit trust in progressive education ideas and the hope for prosperity” (77), with a close look at its global germination in the local geography and polity of Britain. The book is a worthy read to the TIE field and all its kindred theatre forms, in Britain and beyond, as it chronicles a specific history with insights and implications for broader practical and theoretical realms.
Wooster’s long career as a TIE company member, academic, and witness to the evolution of TIE lends clarity and credibility. In his introduction, the author is careful to explain that because the pages contain his perceptions, he worked to include other voices and perspectives, and encouraged these to challenge, oppose, and contradict his own positions. The respected voices of Warwick Dobson, Chris Vine, and Anthony Jackson resonate dialogically with Wooster’s, rather than simply echoing him, bringing a multivocal TIE sensibility to the piece.
The “Roots” portion chronicles TIE’s groundwork as a product of varied forces, particularly the artistic, educational, and political. Centering primarily on the half-century from 1964 to the present, Wooster continually frames TIE as catalyzed and catalyst in the chemistry of person, place, and idea. The history emerges through a recounting of post–World War II politics and ethos, progressive education, developmental psychology, and alternative theatre, with a nod to pioneering figures such as Peter Slade, Brian Way, Dorothy Heathcote, Augusto Boal, Paolo Freire, Jerome Bruner, Lev Vygotsky, and Henry Giroux.
Interspersed with descriptive vignettes depicting early TIE projects, the author deftly lays out the space between education reform and TIE expansion into a movement amid “pedagogical maturity” (55) from 1976 to 1990 in which time it “became a flagship for an authentic education that involved scaffolding knowledge for children between what they know and what they are capable of knowing” (86). The section ends with a pause in the aftermath of the National Curriculum and the Education Reform Act (ERA), as Wooster forecasts turbulence, but focuses on pre-ERA contributions—fruits.
The “Fruits” section rests on two cases richly described, animating specific TIE strategies in context. The rhythm of these chapters is at once depictive, but also instructive, voicing the reflexive trajectory of each TIE piece’s emergence. These cases spawn chapters on the aesthetics of TIE, practical and logistical concerns of producing TIE, and international perspectives. Wooster vacillates naturally between distanced analyst and embedded TIE-maker. The international section broadens to acknowledge global alliances, parallels, and challenges for TIE beyond Britain, including the formation of international organizations around theatre and youth. The author showcases growth and progress, as well as timeless tensions for the field, such as identity, artistry, legitimacy, and political purpose. Placing these negotiations within and between TIE and Theatre for [End Page 270] Young Audiences (TYA) on an international scale humanizes and historicizes the field.
The “Shoots?” component illuminates the present, forcing readers to consider TIE’s future, both as a unique form, as well as an emblem of arts in, or striving to be in, mainstream education. Wooster notes that “the most fruitful period of TIE occurred at the moment that it was most under attack” (173), and catalogs the challenges of the post-ERA years in which the movement, pressured to neutralize its pointed political edges and to service the standardized, struggles to “mutate or die” (181). As the author argues, “the devastating financial and educational effects of ERA eradicated much of the innovative pedagogy surrounding TIE as it had developed. The new shoots that emerged from this devastation had to survive in a world of educational targets and measurable outcomes” (187). Wooster spells...
