What does care aesthetics look like in practice? How do we create theatre workshops that care? As a follow-up accompaniment to his lecture on Friday 30 March, James Thompson will run a workshop that explores how theatre games and exercises might both care about issues and care for their participants. This is not only dealing with themes of care but asks how the process of a workshop itself might be more caring.
While James will introduce several exercises, this process will be experimental as he freely admits he doesn’t have the answers to these questions! The workshop will be collaborative and exploratory. Participants will be encouraged to bring exercises of their own and we will examine how they might be transformed through an attention to care.
Please note that if you wish to participate in this workshop, attendance to James Thompson’s lecture Applying Theatre with Care 10:00 AM on Friday 30 March is a necessary pre-requirement.
James Thompson is Professor of Applied Theatre at the University of Manchester. He was the founder of In Place of War (www.inplaceofwar.net) researching and developing arts programmes in conflict zones and now runs a research project on Care Aesthetics. He has run theatre projects internationally and has written widely on applied theatre and socially engaged arts. Past books include Performance Affects (2009), Humanitarian Performance (2014) and edited with Amanda Stuart Fisher (2020) Performing Care. His new book Care Aesthetics: for Careful Art and Artful Care was published in 2022.