Not Your Father's Theatre© Steven M. Alper
Mar 31, 1998
This week we add a new resource to the list of "Search" sites
(an area I've used less for search engines than for sites that maintain
lists of links to theatre oriented pages). Check out the Applied
and Interactive Theater Guide, created and maintained by State
University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica professor Joel Plotkin.
According to Professor Plotkin (who chairs his university's department
of technical communications), the site is intended as "a resource for
those who use theater techniques for other or more than arts or entertainment
purposes, and for those whose theater styles incorporate other than traditional
presentation styles." This would include everything from improvisation
to theatre-in-education to psychodrama, and the site is open to all of it.
With such an open intent the organization of the site is of necessity in
a constant state of flux. Its main and currently largest area is for sites
devoted to:
Community issues - devoted to theatre groups aimed at particular
population segments or specific issues (regardless of the techniques used
by the company), including such topics as AIDS, disabilities, the elderly,
human rights, and substance abuse. The area shows links by company (or
production) as well as by focus.
The rest of the site is organized by theatrical techniques or philosophies
employed by the listees, such as:
Psychodrama and Sociodrama - primarily an area for announcements
of the national association for psychodramatists, the American
Association for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. Psychodrama was
created by Dr. Jacob L. Moreno as a sort of psychotherapy through theatrical
exploration; sociodrama expands those techniques to group situations.
Training and Development - lists companies who use theatrical
techniques in the corporate, institutional, or organizational environment
to address a number of issues effecting employers and their employees,
such as diversity, harassment, disabilities, leadership, co-working, and
gender.
Drama Therapy - which is actually an entire sub-site devoted
to providing information about Drama Therapy, a technique which, according
to the site, uses "drama/theater process to achieve the therapeutic
goals of symptom relief, emotional and physical intergration, and personal
growth."
Boal/Theater of the Oppressed - which combines sociodrama, improvisation,
and aspects of Berthold Brecht's concept of Epic Theater.
Playback Theatre - uses improvisational techniques to re-enact
episodes from the lives of their audience members.
A well organized and often beautiful site, chock full of information, this site makes
a visit well worth the time for those interested in something different
than what traditional theatre has to serve up.
C U @ the Theatre!
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