Researching and devising youth theatre: Loss of voice and agency through parachute theatre

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores the process in which applied theatre workshops were utilized to research and devise a theatre performance with a group of young people in a rural town in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. The project explored the topic of gun violence and specifically took its stimulus from the 2011 terrorist attack in Norway where 77 young people were gunned down at a summer camp by white supremacist Anders Brevik. The paper explores many facets of the project, including the importance of creating spaces where the young people would feel safe to work and how applied theatre strategies were utilized during this process for both data collection and devising processes with the intention of creating social change. The writer shares how as part of the project's plan, an invited external theatre practitioner came to direct the final portion of the project and in this step the intention of the project quickly changed from the way the young participants had intended. The article reflects on the many lessons that came with the process and changes the writer might implement for the future.