As part of our Centre for Excellence in Participatory Theatre, Collective Encounters is delighted to release this new publication exploring hybrid participatory theatre.
This document contains six case studies kindly given by five companies and practitioners with very different approaches to hybrid participatory theatre, acknowledging the differing definitions of the terms “hybrid” and “participatory”, and the variety of practice this encompasses.
It has been compiled to demonstrate the breadth of practice and experimentation currently underway in the arts and cultural sector, and includes contributions from:
- Active Inquiry, who analyse a hybrid participatory Forum Theatre performance they created for the Aesthetics of Solidarity Festival, Berlin.
- Tassos Stevens, who writes about augmented reality and game play within Coney’s new project, Magic Parcel.
- Merseyside Dance Initiative on building a hybrid studio and delivering hybrid dance workshops with community groups.
- Dr. Tyrone Grima, who synchronised two ‘in the real’ spaces and one online space for romantic comedy drama in Malta.
- Crowded Room on using a hybrid approach to facilitate co-creation and power sharing during the making of a film (La Lucha) with nine women from Latin America who had fought back against exploitation in the cleaning sector.
- Women in Action, an intergenerational group of women with an interest in the arts and a passion for social justice, who have been meeting regularly online, via Zoom since the start of the pandemic.
At the beginning of the document is a summary of some of the observations and recurring themes within the case studies. Case study contributors were asked to describe:
- The technology or physical space used.
- The team you needed to make it happen and any other additional resourcing.
- What worked and what issues did you encounter.
- If something worked, why did it work and could it be recreated.
- If something didn’t work, were you able to remedy it at the time or is it something that could be remedied in the future.
- What was the effect of hybrid working? What did the participants or audience members experience?
- What did you learn? What were the most important learnings for you as a theatre maker?
This document has been published in March 2022 and we expect to publish a further series of case studies later on in the year. If you have an example of hybrid participatory theatre you think should be included in a future publication, please get in touch
Click on the image below to download the standard publication, or use the links underneath for accessible versions. If you require the publication in an alternative format, please contact marianne@collective-encounters.org.uk
