The Theatricality of Pedagogy – An exploration of the open and hidden connections between theatre and pedagogy
A Workshop
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players
William Shakespeare As you like it
It is with those famous words that Shakespeare expresses a view that once was commonly shared: a feeling of dependency, of impotence – a feeling that one is but a pawn in a game much bigger than oneself, moved around to the will of some greater power – that all is a mere act. And it is the stage of the theatre on which the eternal drama is unveiled, on which the comedic or tragic aspects of the divine play are made visible for entertainment and education. Of course: The invention of the autonomous subject in the following centuries – and with it the invention of personal authenticity – made such allusions rather suspicious. But given this history, it might then not come as a surprise that the critique of such a modernity would again formulate itself in theatrical terms: autonomy and authenticity on one side – roles, masks, and performances on the other. And yet, the pendulum seems to swing again to the other side. The post-critical attempts to build yet again a bridge crossing the abyss of post-foundationalism & post-truth seem to yet again be able to perk behind the (wizard's) curtain: to find a new authenticity, a new materiality, a new old ontology even, a new dawn of the world.
Based on such changing ontologies (if allowed) and epistemologies, the theories and practices surrounding the formation of people – i.e. pedagogies – are, of course, inextricably bound to such oscillations. And with it, they are inevitably theatrical, bound to the cosmos of the theatre, to its language and tropes. From the earliest days, theatre was at least partially performed for educational reasons: whether as ritual or ceremonial dance, as Greek tragedy, Japanese Noh performance, or Brechtian play – theatre was conceived to be transformative for performer or audience, or both. The other-world created in such performances has for some always been related to the other-world that emerges in the deliberate attempts to create an educational space and time. In this respect there are at least some strands of educational theorising that have never been shy to adopt theatrical notions to describe educational practices. Dramatization, setting the scene, staging, or re-presenting of world serve as ways to communicate the possibility of a safeguarded practice of living in a (to add another metaphor) 'rehearsal space'. Of course, fashion dictates the proximity of theatre and pedagogy. The air of inauthenticity that surrounds theatre – and even more its melodic sister: opera – has been viewed with suspicion by some pedagogues, for whom authenticity became a battle cry and who did not become tired to reject the idea that education unfolds in a time and space of its own decidedly other-worldly logic: Tell me what you think of theatre, and I will tell you what kind of pedagogue you are!
The workshop that will take place in Glasgow in May 2022 will follow the open and hidden connections of theatre and pedagogy, of the theatrical and the pedagogical.Please, find the full CfP here.
UPDATE (18/4/22): Download Workshop Programme