{"id":10250,"date":"2011-05-26T15:06:54","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T20:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=10250"},"modified":"2011-05-26T15:10:23","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T20:10:23","slug":"professor-uses-plays-to-inspire-social-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2011\/05\/professor-uses-plays-to-inspire-social-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor uses plays to inspire social change"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Joe

Joe Norris engages the audience during a recent Mirror Theatre performance at Brock.<\/p><\/div>\n

Joe Norris has provoked discussions about issues such as substance abuse, bullying, harassment and human sexuality. And it\u2019s all been through the power of drama.<\/p>\n

The Dramatic Arts professor<\/a> is the founder of Brock\u2019s Mirror Theatre, a collective of about 18 students and staff who prompt group discussions through a method called playbuilding. By acting out scenarios, they inspire the discussion of social issues ranging from violence against women to workplace harassment.<\/p>\n

The local incarnation of Mirror Theatre is the latest development of 20 years of research by Norris, who recently published <\/a>Playbuilding as Qualitative Research: A Participatory Arts-Based Approach<\/em>. The book won this year\u2019s American Educational Research Association\u2019s Qualitative Research SIG\u2019s Outstanding Book Award. Among other attributes, it \u201ccreated the fertile ground for much-needed dialogue,\u201d said award committee chair Kakali Bhattacharya.<\/p>\n

\"Joe

Joe Norris and his book, Playbuilding as Qualitative Research<\/p><\/div>\n

Mirror Theatre\u2019s most recent performance was \u201cdis\u201dPositions, a presentation about workplace violence<\/a> for Brock\u2019s Human Resources, Environment, Health and Safety.<\/p>\n

Group members \u2013 about 15 of which are students \u2013 acted out workplace scenarios, stopping to engage the audience in discussion and revising their performance accordingly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe research stories and translate them into theatre,\u201d Norris said. \u201cWe give our audiences the thesis and the antithesis and workshop them in finding their own synthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mirror Theatre does about one performance per semester, which is as much as the non-profit can handle, Norris said. But its potential use is widespread.<\/p>\n

Norris started thinking about playbuilding as a Nova Scotia high school teacher in the 1970s and 80s. He engaged students in collective playwriting, which meant several of them had a hand in writing it. By giving them a voice, he said, they learned more and were more engaged in the class.<\/p>\n

His first university job was at the University of Lethbridge, where he held a student production, Snapshots of Playing Together, in 1991. He took the concept to the University of Alberta in 1992. Soon there were numerous requests for performances.<\/p>\n

The group incorporated as Mirror Theatre in 1997. Its work included a series of performances for the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, the Canadian Brewers\u2019 Association (about underage drinking) and a series of videos for Safe and Caring Schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the time I\u2019ve been doing this, we\u2019ve never lacked for topics,\u201d Norris said.<\/p>\n

He brought the Mirror Theatre concept with him to Brock in 2009. He has found group members and audiences to be enthusiastic and engaged.<\/p>\n

There are five ways we communicate \u2013 numbers, words, images, gestures and sounds. But academia tends to only focus on the first two, Norris said. Mirror Theatre attempts to engage them all.<\/p>\n

He hopes the book award gives others the freedom to engage in research that operates on all five cylinders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want this to enable others who have wanted to do this to do it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a collaborative adventure of hundreds of people. They all had a part in writing this book.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Norris founded Mirror Theatre, a group that provokes discussion about social issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,1,5],"tags":[109,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10250"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10255,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10250\/revisions\/10255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}