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What is applied theatre and how can people benefit from it? Philadelphia theater professor provides insight

  • Aniya Faulcon

 Scott Robbins

On The Spark Tuesday, we sparked conversation about an art form that many may not know about, applied theatre.

Fadi Skeiker, Philadelphia based, Syrian-born theater practitioner and theatre professor at the University of the Arts, has used applied theater, for over a decade to help people across the world, as a tool to address youth, human rights issues, and other issues as it relates to refugees and other marginalized groups.

Skeiker joined us to discuss his story, applied theater and how marginalized communities can benefit from it.

Skeiker said, applied theater is an umbrella term that includes theater, education, drama therapy and community based theater to address social and individual issues without a final performance at the end. In this art form, the applied theater practitioner or a community member identifies an issue and artists lead exercises, dramatize the issue, dialogue about it and improvise scenarios of how they could address the issue.

“Let’s listen to each other, be compassionate to each other and hear each other’s stories,” Skeiker said. “I just want people to be able to share their stories in a way where they know there’s someone listening and hopefully applied theater would be a safe platform for people to listen actively to someone else.”

 

 

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