The new edition of Playbuilding as Arts-Based Research details how playbuilding (creating an original performative work with a group) as a methodology has developed in qualitative research over the last 15 years. The second edition substantially updates the award-winning first edition by making connections to current research theories, providing complete scripts with URL links to videos, and including a new section with interviews with colleagues. Chapter 1 provides an in-depth discussion of the epistemological, ontological, axiological, aesthetic, and pedagogic stances that playbuilding takes, applying them to research in general. The value of a playful, trusting atmosphere; choices of style, casting, set, and location in representing the data; and pedagogical theories that guide participatory theatre are highlighted. Chapter 2 discusses how Mirror Theatre generates data, structures dramatic scenes, and conducts live and virtual participatory workshops. Chapter 3 is a thematized account of interviews with 23 colleagues who employ variations of playbuilding that show how playbuilding can be applied in a wide range of contemporary contexts and disciplines. Chapters 4 through 9 describe six projects that address topics of drinking choices and mental health issues on campus, person-centred care, homelessness, the transition to university, and co-op placements. They include both a theme and a style analyses and workshop ideas. Chapter 10, new to this edition, concludes with quantitative and qualitative data from audiences attesting to the efficacy of this approach. This is a fascinating resource for qualitative researchers, applied theatre practitioners, drama teachers, and those interested in social justice, who will appreciate how the book adeptly blends theory and practice, providing exemplars for their own projects.

Guide to creating plays with young people through inprovisation, discussion and rehearsal. Aimed at teachers and youth workers, the book contains step-by-step instructions and descriptions of completed projects. The author is a renowned playbuilding director with an international reputation in the field.

A guide for teachers, youth theatre workers and youth leaders offering detailed instructions on creating plays using one word or brief phrase lead-ins. Errol Bray was the founder and for nine years the Artistic Director, of Sydney's Shopfront Theatre for Young People.

The State of the Art: Teaching Drama in the 21st Century presents cutting-edge scholarship from leading drama education researchers in New South Wales. This collection features discussions that are directly relevant to drama teachers in primary and secondary schools, artists and theatre makers, and drama education researchers.

This book is for both art-based researchers and research-informed artists, exploring the theatrical genre known as Collective Creation, or Playbuilding. Performers generate data around chosen topics— from addiction and sexuality to qualitative research—by compiling scenes from their disparate voices. Audience members become involved in the investigation, and the performed scenes do not end the conversation but challenge and extend it. Through discussion and audience participation, the process examines how knowledge is defined and how data is mediated.

Young at Art is a practical guide to playbuilding for teachers working with students at an upper primary and secondary level. Focusing on an area often neglected in traditional drama text books, the book covers the process of devising drama, and the teacher’s role in facilitating students to collectively become playwrights, actors, designers, directors and critics of their ensemble work. An essential guide for all drama teachers Young at Art covers practical teaching issues and strategies for working with groups of students to help them perform their playbuilt stories to an audience, as well as techniques for student assessment and evaluation, providing a wealth of exemplary starting points and approaches. The book offers detailed guidance on working with students to help facilitate the collaborative creative and reflective processes, offering practical ideas and structures which can be easily implemented in the classroom.

"The handbook is heavy on methods chapters in different genres. There are chapters on actual methods that include methodological instruction and examples. There is also ample attention given to practical issues including evaluation, writing, ethics and publishing. With respect to writing style, contributors have made their chapters reader-friendly by limiting their use of jargon, providing methodological instruction when appropriate, and offering robust research examples from their own work and/or others."--