Performative Inter-actions in African Theatre 2: Innovation, Creativity and Social Change

Product Description
This book is part of a three-volume book-set published under the general title of Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre. Each of the three books in the set has a unique subtitle that works to better focus its content and differentiates it from the other two volumes. The contributors' backgrounds and global spread adequately reflect the international focus of the three books that make up the collection. The contributions, in their various ways, demonstrate the many advances and ingenious solutions adopted by African theatre practitioners in tackling some of the challenges arising from the adverse colonial experience, as well as the "one-sided" advance of globalisation. The contributions attest to the thriving nature of African theatre and performance, which in the face of these challenges, has managed to retain its distinctiveness, while at the same time acknowledging, contesting, and appropriating influences from elsewhere into an aesthetic that is identifiably African. Consequently, the three books are presented as a comprehensive exploration of the current state of African theatre and performance, both on the continent and diaspora. Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre 2: Innovation, Creativity and Social Change contains essays that address performativity as a process, particularly in the context of theatre's engagement with contemporary realities with the hope of instigating social change. The innovativeness of the examples explored within the book points to the ingenuity and adaptive capacity of African theatre in ways that engage indigenous forms in the service of contemporary realities. Contributions in Innovation, Creativity and Social Change explore forms such as Theatre for Development, community and applied theatre, and indigenous juridical performances, as well as the work of contemporary dramatists and performers who set out to instigate change in society.
About the Author
Dr Kene Igweonu is Assistant Head of Department of Music and Performing Arts and Programme Director for Drama at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He is a member of the editorial boards of African Performance Review (APR) and South African Theatre Journal (SATJ). He is the founding convener, and currently co-convener of the African and Caribbean Theatre and Performance Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFRT). His latest work is Trends in Twenty-First Century African Theatre and Performance (Rodopi, 2011). Professor Osita Okagbue is the founding President of the African Theatre Association (AfTA) and founding and current Editor of African Performance Review (APR). He is also an Associate Editor for Routledge's Theatres of the World Series. His published works include African Theatres and Performances (Routledge 2007), Culture and Identity in African and Caribbean Theatre (Adonis and Abbey, 2009), and African Theatre: Diasporas (James Currey), co-edited with Christine Matzke. Professor Okagbue teaches in, and is Deputy Head of, the Department of Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.