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Drama, Culture and Empowerment: the IDEA dialogues JOHN O'TOOLE & KATE DONELAN (Eds), 1996
IDEA Publications, c/o NADIE Administrator, Metro Arts Building, 109 Edward Street, Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia 265 pp. ISBN 0 646 298585
The International Drama/Theatre and Education Association held its second World Congress in Brisbane, Australia, in July 1995. Attracting 1200 delegates from all five continents, it was the largest gathering to date for practitioners, teachers, academics and artists involved in educational drama. The 29 chapters of this book are a carefully selected and ordered representative sample of articles emerging from the papers, workshops and discussion groups which addressed the concerns of the congress, namely `What can be the role of drama, theatre and education in a rapidly changing world entering a new millennium?' The book is of evident interest to anyone fortunate enough to have been at Brisbane but ought to be of equal interest to those who, like me, were unable to attend. For it is quite evident that a significant philosophical stance emerged from Brisbane, one which recognised that, all over the globe, practitioners of drama and education share common concerns but very different forms of working, forms which are shaped by the diverse nature of their cultural contexts and traditions. The book embodies a philosophy which embraces this cultural diversity, encouraging us to recognise that what is happening in our field elsewhere may be different from what we as individuals do but is nonetheless right for that elsewhere. It becomes a platform for our global community of drama educators to share one another's elsewheres, to celebrate what unites us and to understand what makes each of us particular.
The introduction by the editors and the prologue by Jonothan Neelands provide a thorough overture to the book's themes, the former giving a clear explanation of its structure and its central concerns, the latter providing a taut, critical examination of the cultural and aesthetic values underpinning the congress and its keynote speeches, whilst indicating the emergence of a new, transcultural paradigm in drama...