Bio

Selina Busby is an academic and theatre practitioner who makes performances with community groups and a National Teaching Fellow. She is a professor of applied and social theatre at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her research and practice focus on theatre that invites the possibility of change. She uses participatory and emancipatory research methods, and has worked in prison settings, youth theatres, and with people living in adverse conditions both in the UK and internationally. Current projects include work with communities living in informal housing settlements and those living with gender-based violence in India. Recent publications include: Applied Theatre: A Pedagogy of Utopia (2021) Methuen

Project

We are a group of international scholar-artists committed to developing interdisciplinary theatre-based projects focusing on complex societal issues. This group of highly accomplished and motivated scholar-artists bring a wealth of diverse experiences in theatre and pedagogy. The objective of our proposed time at FABER-Olot is to work collectively on an emerging project that integrates the aesthetics and artistry of professional theatre into pedagogical, scholarly, and community-based settings. Through this work we will explore specific ways to effectively engage and activate the public through rich dialogue stimulated by theatre-based work that centers on current social issues such as mental health, as well as equity, diversity and inclusion.

The expertise in the group coming to FABER consists of artist-scholars from North America, Europe, and Asia who are committed to exploring mental health and wellbeing using the lens of counselling and psychology, bringing an interdisciplinary approach within our collaboration. A key reason to gather this international group is to engage in conversations around how our respective work and approaches (within our communities/countries) translate into different geographical, cultural and community settings. A key goal for our time together is to creatively design a Research-based Theatre (https://rbtcollaborative.ubc.ca) and pedagogical process that is inclusive and community-driven. Rather than developing a uniform approach or a constricting set of guidelines, we aim to provide a landscape of possibilities of working with research-based theatre and pedagogy in diverse contexts. We wish to learn from one another and build on each other’s knowledge and commitments to social and health equity.