Acta Community Theatre’s ‘cycle of engagement’ and foundation worker programme: creating pathways into cultural participation and work

Schaefer, K. et al. (2020) Acta Community Theatre’s ‘cycle of engagement’ and foundation worker programme: creating pathways into cultural participation and work. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 40(3), pp. 334-345. (doi: 10.1080/14682761.2020.1807214)

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Abstract

This article expounds acta’s model of participatory community theatre developed over the years since the organisation was founded in 1985. It examines how acta’s commitment to access and participation has come to be enshrined in the ‘cycle of engagement’ which offers multiple pathways into and through participation in theatre making. Recently, these pathways into experiencing and making theatre have been extended into (paid) training and employment through the launch of the Foundation Worker (FW) programme. The article examines acta’s Foundation Worker programme which offers first jobs with training and mentoring to those new to the community/participtory arts workforce, whether recent arts graduates, community theatre participants or civil society/third sector workers. It is argued that the co-articulation of the cycle of engagement and the Foundation Worker programme reflects acta’s democratic and developmental ethos of theatre making. The aim of this piece is to contextualise acta’s history and development as a community theatre company and to outline the pathways into employment and training that acta’s FW programme offers. The paper is co-authored with acta and FWs (in third-person voice) after a focus group at the acta Centre, Bedminster, in July 2019, with follow up over email.

Item Type:Articles
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:UNSPECIFIED
Authors: Schaefer, K., Abdulla, A., Beddow, N., Cook, J., Elhindi, H., Jones, I., Harvey, T., Hopkins, K., Pordes, R., Schaefer, K., Snook, S., and Tomlin, H.
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies
Journal Name:Studies in Theatre and Performance
Publisher:Taylor & Francis
ISSN:1468-2761
ISSN (Online):2040-0616
Published Online:07 January 2021
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2020 The Authors
First Published:First published in Studies in Theatre and Performance 40(3): 334-345
Publisher Policy:Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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Project CodeAward NoProject NamePrincipal InvestigatorFunder's NameFunder RefLead Dept
301220Incubate/Propagate: Networked Ecologies of New Performance-MakingElizabeth TomlinArts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)AH/R012962/1Arts - Theatre studies