Work In Progress for a Project on Engaging Adult Learning Communities in Using the Principles of Theater Arts to Prepare Them to Create Social Change, Phase B

Annotated Bibliography

Governing Question: What are the steps that I can take to engage the adult learning communities in using the principles of theater arts to prepare them to create social change?

(excerpts only)
Subheading 1: The following works that reflect the end goal of social change through a more revolutionary viewpoint of what “adult education” should really mean, and the involvement of community members in participatory theater:
Key Readings
1. Freire, Paulo (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Seabury Press.

• Freire is considered one of the fathers of the formulation of adult education theory with respect to helping those oppressed and developed the idea of “popular education”, the technique of using learning to help individuals understand how their own actions and situations connect to those of the community. Many other works in this bibliography draw upon Freire's work.

2. Boal: Augusto (1979). Theater of the Oppressed. New York: Urizen.

• Boal is a follower of Freire and built upon his work more specifically in terms of using drama and participatory theater in the search for allowing individuals to develop social change. This work is fundamental to almost all other cited works below that address the use of theater in adult education communities to enable social change.

3. KEY ARTICLE: Desai, Guarev. (1990). “Theater as Praxis: Discursive Strategies in African Popular Theater.” African Studies Review, 33 (1, April): 65-92.

• This article provides a historical context for the idea of the Theater of the Oppressed and discusses the use of participatory theater in African countries to develop the adult education system into what is seen as its most critical format, which is to help the people become educated about basic-needs issues such as health and interacting with the government power structure. Although certainly not a complete survey of all issues related to my topic, I chose this as a key article because it represents one way in which the theater arts, social change, and adult education are considered a single unified idea and not simply a hybrid of others; also, historical examples discussed demonstrate how all members of a community are involved as valued participants, particularly those who do not have formal experience in theater, teaching, or activism. This is an underlying requirement to the assumptions guiding my Governing Question.

Supplemental Readings and Case Studies
The following readings are supplements to the works listed above and build upon the work of Freire and Boal:
• Cohen-Cruz, J. (1993). Playing Boal: Theatre of the Oppressed Anthology. New York: Routledge.
• Schipani, Daniel (1984). Conscienization and Creativity. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, Inc.
• Carter Ogden, Jean (1983). Everyman's drama: A study of the noncommercial theatre in the United States. New York: American Association for Adult Education.
• Cohen-Cruz, J. (2005). Local Acts: Community-based Performance In The United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

The following articles all serve a similar purpose and provide case studies of the use of Theater Develop for serving the adult learning communities in specific social issues:
• Frey, L. and Carragee, K. (2006). Catalyzing Social Reform Through Participatory Folk Performances in Rural India. Communication and Social Activism. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
• Kemp, Martin (2006). “Promoting the Health and Wellbeing of Young Black Men Using Community-Based Drama.” Health Education 106 (3): 186-200.
• Ndumbe Eyoh, Hansel (1987). “Theatre and Community Education: The Africa Experience.” Africa Media Review 1 (3): 56-68.
• Conrad, Diane (2004). “Exploring Risky Youth Experiences: Popular Theatre as a Participatory Performative Research Method.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 3 (1, April): 12-25.
• Malamah-Thomas, D. (1987). “Theatre Development in Sierra Leone: A Study of Care's Project Learn.” Africa Media Review 1 (3): 81-94.

Similar bibliographic lists appear for the following additional subheadings:
Subheading 2: The following works connect ideas of teaching directly to use of theater techniques.
Subheading 3: The following works address the meaning of teaching and theater toward social change.