Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper is based on emergent findings from an engaged research project featuring a publicly funded school-based participatory project hosted by Ireland’s Civic Theatre. The More-Than-Human project is by Monkeyshine, an arts and theatre company with open and collaborative creative exploration fundamental to their stated methodologies of questioning and exploring, nurture and kindle. With arts funding policy emphasis securely on child voice and agency within the creation and curation of performance-based work for children, the nature of participation is researched, and the extent to which the work of the theatre artists represents a child-centred, democratic approach. Thus, pedagogies supporting child agency within the artistic practices of Monkeyshine are investigated to illustrate and underscore the means by which children contribute to exploratory workshops informing performance. The title emerges from the researcher’s draft analysis of the observed pre-production workshop, and an inherent assumption that the dynamic of the classroom space changes with the creation of the aesthetic space of theatre (Boal, 1995). Breaking down the physical order of the classroom and reducing the social distance between teacher and child, can serve to infuse trust in child and make conversation possible (Singh, 2004), with the affordance of such a space likened to Cahill’s (2014:235) space for enquiry. This leads to a discussion of the extent to which the nature of the dynamic change described can be expected in the given classroom environment, and the identification of the required conditions thereof, demanding an analysis of the pedagogy in use and the associated active methodologies.