18 Jun
Acting Outside the Box
Primary Investigator
Ian Thompson | Department of Education
Contributors:
Harry Daniels | Department of Education
Alice Tawell | Department of Education
Partner Organisations:
Acting Outside the Box was a two-way Knowledge Exchange partnership between the multidisciplinary and multi-institutional Excluded Lives Research Group, co-led by Professor Harry Daniels and Dr Ian Thompson at the University of Oxford, and Mandala Theatre Company, led by Yasmin Sidhwa. The project focused on school exclusion, bringing together academic research and the performing arts.
The collaboration aimed to:
- Inform the development of the theatre piece Pipeline (working title), co-created with young people and written by Avaes Mohammad, by integrating research findings into the script.
- Run drama workshops with Young People's Research Advisory Groups (YPRAGs), exploring the potential of drama as both a research methodology and a means of disseminating research findings.
- Present performances of Pipeline and panel discussions for teachers and students in Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, and Oxford during May and June 2021. These events enabled focused discussion and analysis of the political economies of school exclusion while disseminating findings from the Excluded Lives Research Group to both academic and non-academic audiences.
- Culminate in a Knowledge Exchange Conference in Oxford in June 2021, held as part of the Humanities Cultural Programme. The conference featured a performance alongside a panel debate involving young people and multidisciplinary research experts. It demonstrated how University of Oxford research informed the humanities and the arts, while also showing how the work of a local and national theatre company stimulated and enriched academic research for both the general public and the University.
The panel discussion was broadcast live from the North Wall Arts Centre and featured key project partners. Online audience members were invited to participate and interact during the event.
Acting Outside the Box
Plugged into headphones – a world of spoken word, music, podcasts and rap that underscore their lives – Though this be Madness sheds light on the countless British youth whose downfall is ushered by the very systems established to protect them.
The play unravels what is happening to young people in relation to education, exclusion, gang grooming and too often, a pipeline to prison. Co-created with young people the production uses dynamic physical theatre to present a moving and authentic exploration of what lies behind the headlines. Can we change the story?
Developed by Mandala Theatre Company, the R&D process for the production included outreach workshop sessions with more than 100 young people from Black, Asian, ethnically diverse, and white lower socio-economic backgrounds from 10 schools, colleges, Pupil Referral Units, Youth Offender Services, as well as working in partnership with members of the Excluded Lives Research Team based at the Department of Education, University of Oxford.
The production were reach young people, the people who work with them, educationalists and policy-makers, through a series of streamed Knowledge Exchange events and a live and digital Conference at the Northwall Arts Centre, Oxford.
Contact:
Ian Thompson
ian.thompson@education.ox.ac.uk.
