Community-based theatre: a medium to advocate for social justice and change

Graduation Date

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Other

Program

Thesis (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, Sociology, 2015

Committee Chair Name

Renee Byrd

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Social justice, Theatre of the Oppressed, Grounded theory, Building relationships, Humboldt State University -- Theses -- Sociology, Social change, Community building, Community-based theatre, Arts

Abstract

This thesis looks at theatre as a possible medium to advocate for social justice and change. The arts have proven to be a method for engaging people, groups and communities in dialogues concerning a vast amount of issues. I participated in a nine-day artistic residency with thirteen student artists from a theatre school in Northern California in order to see their interactions, involvement and engagement with a rural community in northern California. During the residency, I took the role of a participant observer and did ethnography. After the artistic residency, the participants were asked to participate in semi-structured interviews with the purpose of understanding and obtaining richer descriptions of their experiences during their stay in the rural community in northern California. This research is in response to a program evaluation I produced for the school. The results show that arts and theatre are a venue to promote community building.

https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/6682x648s

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